Desire is Half of Life
by xxkirahoshi
Summary: BleachNaruto Crossover Naruto was captured by Akatsuki at long last but was not saved in time. He died. Sasuke finally fought with his brother but he was still not strong enough and was killed. Both wind up in Soul Society. Yaoi R&R -FINISHED-
1. Chapter One

**Desire is Half of Life**

_**Summary: BleachNaruto Crossover Naruto was captured by Akatsuki at long last but was not saved in time. He died. Sasuke finally fought with his brother but he was still not strong enough and was killed. Both wind up in Soul Society. Yaoi R&R**_

_**  
**_"Blah"

'_Thinking'_

**(' ") emphasized words ( " ')**

_(") Sarcastic words (") (') _In a thought _(')_

_"Quotes"_ _**(A/N: Author's Note)**_

_**--**_

_Author Time: _

Ko-no-ni-ichi-wa! (I'm doing that on purpose I know how to spell _konnichi'wa _correctly.) If you've read my other fan fictions and care that I haven't updated quite a few of them……………TO BAD! I'm bored and I want to type something new. I think I might delete some of the older fictions (if you care.) Now! On to things everyone should care about. This is my, I don't know what number, crossover fiction I know it's a single digit number though. Anyway, this has got to be my like…30th fan fiction all together. In terms of Naruto and yaoi based pairings I love SaiNaru, GaaNaru, and SasuNaru. (Naruto will always be the UKE!! (Even if you can't spell Sasuke without Uke.) And now concerning Bleach, I have no idea whatsoever! I've never been motivated to look for Bleach yaoi. Before any yaoi or shonen-ai (whatever) actually gets in here I'll look at…Hmm…I know I'm going to look for something with Byakuya and Ichigo, and then something with umm…yeah…I don't know. If anyone has a pairing that they like with Ichigo in it or maybe even Toushiro (that doesn't scare me like….shiver ZarakiIchigo) then give me a shout in a review or a PM. Thank you for letting me suck more and more of your precious life away.

--

_**Chapter One: Death of Two Shinobi**_

**(Naruto **_**First Person**_** POV)**

_(A/N: The point of view will shift but don't worry I'll give you a heads up like above when it changes.)_

"_**To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life."**_

This is a joke right? I'm just dreaming that this happened right? I'm just having a nightmare…right? There's just no way that…that I **died**. That can't be right. I've fought so long and so hard just to die now? That's…that's retarded! I'm going to be Hokage! I can't be dead! I won't accept it!

Even if I don't accept it, it will never change the truth. I'm floating around in this darkness that just doesn't seem to end. I keep trying to look ahead to see where I am going but nothing appears. All around me is this black nothingness that just keeps going. I suppose trying to shout for someone is stupid no one will hear me.

I'm dead.

Akatsuki finally got me and took the Kyuubi from me. I'm not any bit part of that demon anymore but it doesn't change anything now. I am dead. I wonder how Sakura and the others are holding up.

I hope Sai doesn't hate me for dieing on him. I told him I would be there and yet, I'm here instead of there. I heard his calling a while back but it was too fait for me to find where it was coming from so I guess I'm never coming back. Chiyo-baabaa isn't around to revive me like she did with Gaara so I guess I'm going to stay dead.

Here's some food for thought though. If I really am dead why am I able to still think? Why am I still able to process what's going on around me? What is this place?

"Is this really what death is like?" I say out loud before suddenly a bright white light covers my vision and I open my eyes. Was I really just dreaming I was dead?

**(Third Person POV aka Omniscient)**

Naruto sat up slowly slightly weak, not feeling like himself. He felt as if he had had all of his charka drawn from him, which meant the Kyuubi must have been gone. He'd never felt this weak before, not even after the fight with Gaara where he was dragging himself on the ground incase Gaara still wanted to fight.

Naruto's blue orbs scanned the room he was now in before he raised an eyebrow in confusion. The room looked old like back in the samurai period before steam boats and television. In regards to the room, it was clean and Naruto swore he could smell cherry blossoms somewhere near. The young ninja looked toward the shoji to his left with interest. Before he tried to stand up, after he stood he found he was wearing a simple white male kimono with a white obi keeping it shut. He was confused as to why he was wearing a kimono after being in the fight. He expected to be in the Konoha hospital clothing as he normally wound up in.

Shaking his head and getting over the fact he was not in the hospital nor was he wearing hospital clothes, he walked to the shoji and placed a hand on the slider. For some reason he felt that if he opened the door his life would forever change. As he thought he did not hear the footsteps approaching. After much deliberation Naruto decided to open the door, and in once forceful and fearful push he slid the door open with a heavy slam. His eyes were squeezed shut for a moment then slowly opened.

'_Please let me see someone I know.' _Naruto thought as he saw a pair of sandaled feet. These sandals were a little different to what he was used to, and barely above the feet the young blonde could see the hem of a black hakama. '_That doesn't look like I'm going to know this person.' _Naruto told himself as he looked up quickly and came face to face with what looked like it could have been him save for the missing whiskers, and the tallness. "Ah!!" Naruto shouted as he stumbled back and fell on his ass. "Who…who are you!?" he asked pointing at the older blonde man with the same blue eyes.

"Me?" he asked pointing at his face with a questioning and silly face. "My name is Namikaze Minato." The man said waving a little. He wore a black hakama with a white over coat ripped along the bottom and the sleeves. "It's nice to finally get to talk to you Naruto."

_(A/N: I do last name first name, so you'll see things like Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Itachi and so on.)_

"How do you know my name!?" Naruto asked still freaking out over the aged image of himself.

"How?" Minato asked with the same face from before. "Well I would hope to know the name of my own son."

"Your son?" Naruto questioned looking confused and staring at Minato.

"Yes." The blonde man said with a stupid grin.

"Me…?" Naruto pointed at himself then to Minato," you?" he paused assuming Minato understood him, and got a nod from the older man. "WHAT!?"

--

**(Sasuke POV)**

How the hell did I get to this place? I don't understand. I know I died fighting with my brother but…where is this? People all over the place wearing old hakama and kimonos and kids that all look like trouble children eye shops and other things that look like they could fetch a good price. I don't understand this. Even I was wearing a worn and tattered jinbei colored tan.

I take a seat on an old water barrel to take in the sites I see before me. It all looks so weird. Almost like someone putting on a show or one of those "Live in the Old Times" amusement parks. I just sat there looking at everyone passing by, thinking to myself, trying to figure out what all of this was. Suddenly my eyes snap to a woman walking by with a strange grin on her face. The expression doesn't interest me as much as the woman does. She looks just like my mother, but that's impossible because she's dead. Dead like me.

That mean's that it could be her! I have to follow her. I have to know!

**(Omniscient POV) **

Sasuke quickly hopped off of the barrel he had been sitting on and followed behind the woman careful not to let her know he was there. She stopped by a few places buying food and cooking tools before she began to walk to the outskirts of the town. About a half mile away from all of the commotion of the city she walked into a smaller living place that had six or seven houses grouped together.

"I'm home." She called as Sasuke jetted over to the simple window and peered in to see what was happening inside.

"Welcome home." said a man that looked painstakingly like Sasuke's father. "You were taking so long I thought that you had gotten mugged by some of those brats in town."

"I'm fine." She said setting the shopping prizes on the small table. "We've been here for a little over seven years, we should be used to everything by now don't you think?" she asked her husband.

"We should." The man said with a sigh as his wife began to pull out all of the items and fill a pot with water. "Did anyone weird fallow you home?"

"Weird?" she questioned as she out the pot on a lit stove. "No." she answered glancing to the window for a split second but Sasuke saw it. Sasuke always caught things like that.

"Alright." The man said sitting back and leaning on the wall.

"But we should invite our guest inside don't you think?" the woman asked sparking the man and Sasuke's attention. "It's been a long time since we've seen him."

"Who?" The man asked standing up and walking outside, while Sasuke simply stared at the back of the woman who was cutting carrots.

'_How did she know I was here?' _Sasuke asked himself as the man rounded the corner. He squinted his eyes for a moment before they went wide with amazement.

"Sa…Sasuke?" the man breathed walking over to the raven haired Uchiha. "It is…its Sasuke…." He said touching the ninja's shoulders as the Uchiha teen tensed. The man hugged Sasuke tightly all the while the young ninja stared at the side of the house confused. He had no idea what was going on but for some reason he felt at home in this place. He felt safe.

--

"Okay! So this place is Soul Society?" Naruto questioned his legs crosses and a hand on each knee. He looked to Minato getting a nod then he continued. "I am in fact dead." Another nod was his answer. "You're my father." Another nod for his answer. "And we're now Shinigami?"

"That's right." Minato said wanting to speak now. "We live in the part of Soul Society called Seireitei and we as Shinigami protect Soul Society and the human world from Hollows."

"Hollows are what now?" Naruto asked confused.

"Hollows are former human souls that lose their hearts to despair or remain in the real world for too long. Any spirit that is not guided to Soul Society by a shinigami may eventually turn into a Hollow." Minato explained.

"Alright." Naruto said nodding his head and taking a deep breath. "I'm dead, I'm a shinigami, and I am supposed to kill these things called Hollows. Got that all down…What the hell ever happened to the after life being a restful and happy place?"

"Just think of this as a between world. Actually almost every spirit comes through this place. It is the final judgment ground for humans. Souls with amazing powers eventually become Shinigami and part of the Goteijūsantai." Minato said. "I'm the captain of the Third Division of the Goteijūsantai."

Naruto pushed his hand to his face with exasperation. "Okay." Naruto said trying to stay calm. "Goteijūsantai…right." Naruto took another deep breath before he stood up quickly. "You're just playing around with me right? I'm not really dead and all of this Hollow and Shinigami crap is just a load of bull right?"

"Afraid not, I know it is a lot to take in at one time Naruto but you have to believe me." Minato said to the once Kyuubi holder.

"How can I!?" Naruto snapped. "This is all too much to take in at one time! I get that I'm dead even if I don't want to accept that but you want me to believe I'm a Death God and I'm supposed to kill these weird monsters! You're crazy! And how in the name of all things dead are you my father! You're the asshole that sealed the Kyuubi within me!" Naruto was now shouting at the top of his lungs seriously pissed and confused.

"Is everything alright Taicho?" asked a dark haired woman as she slid the door open.

"Yes everything is fine. He just seems to be having a hard time accepting everything." Minato said with a smile toward the woman.

"Taicho maybe if you didn't try to feed everything to him at one time?" the woman suggested. "And maybe let the school decide if he should be a Shinigami."

"He's my son of course he should be!" Minato exclaimed facing the woman fully. "Katsuragi-san, please believe me when I say this."

"I believe you but it is still required." Katsuragi said with a light shake of her head. "You remember what it was like for you?"

"Yes." Minato said as he let his head drop to one side.

"Good! Now, Hitsugaya-Taicho is here with Kurosaki Ichigo to talk with you so go meet them and I shall assist your son." Katsuragi said with a smile as Naruto protested believe that he was Minato's son.

"Alright." Minato said pulling up his sword which had been on he ground beside him then used it to pull himself up. "We'll talk more later, listen to what Katsuragi-san tells you." He said as he walked out of the room. "I'll see you later on my son." With that Minato left with a quick step that seemed to come from joy.

"Can you really deny he is your father?" Katsuragi questioned Naruto with a kind look.

"I can but it wouldn't mean anything." Naruto said sitting back down. "Is everything he told me true?"

"Yes," Katsuragi said, "he is a very intelligent man, and a strong captain. When he first arrived in this place he too denied everything but he got over it and grew into a strong man. After a while all he could talk about was how he hoped you would do well in your life so you could one day join him in Seireitei. This was quiet a bit earlier then he expected though." The woman said as she walked over and sat on her knees next to Naruto. "My name is Katsuragi Sanko, a pleasure to meet you Naruto-kun."

"Ah," Naruto sounded looking at Sanko," Uzu…" he paused to think for a minute before he started again," Namikaze Naruto." He smiled a little unsure if he was being right or wrong.

"You are getting a grip of things faster then your father that is for certain." Sanko said with a kind smile. "Now we should get you dressed, we have to go to the school to see if we can't make you a Shinigami."

"Oh…Okay." Naruto said still confused as ever but willing to go along with everything. Besides, it wasn't like he was going to be doing anything else from now on.

--

"So this means that Itachi really has wiped out our entire clan." Sasuke's father said as the three of them sat down to eat. "Damn it all." He said slamming his fists together.

"I'm sorry I couldn't kill him." Sasuke said bowing his head.

"No, it's fine." The older Uchiha said waving a hand at his son. "You tried and you became stronger then anyone in our clan could have wished. We're proud of you."

"You shouldn't be." Sasuke said before his mother patted him on the top of the head.

"We're just happy to see you again, though it is a pity that you died so young. You didn't even have time to fall in love or have a family." She said with a kind smile.

"Mother." Sasuke said looking at her as she began to serve the stew she had cooked.

"We can just live here together. There is no way that Itachi could ruin our lives here." The father said with a relieved look before he thanked his wife for the meal and ate.

"Sure." Sasuke said as he stared at the food. '_If I'm dead why would I need food?' _Sasuke asked himself before he too thanked his mother for the food and ate. It had been far too long since he had had anything his mother cooked.

They ate in silence until the father spoke up voicing what he was thinking. "Sasuke…how would you like you try and become a Shinigami?"

"A what?" Sasuke questioned not seeing the concerned look his mother held at the words.

"A Death God, Shinigami, they escort souls to the after life and enforce the laws in Seireitei all while killing Hollows." The father explained as Sasuke looked on intently. "You see…" he paused putting his plate down and looking his son in the eye," they all work to become stronger and protect what is important to them whether it be greed or family. I'm not saying you have to be a Shinigami I was just saying it because you still look like you want to prove yourself."

"I do." Sasuke said with a serious look.

"Then becoming a Shinigami may be just right for you." The father spoke. "You can prove yourself and protect your family as such."

"Why didn't you become one?" Sasuke asked.

"Not everyone can, they have to have a high level of reiatsu." Sasuke's mother interjected.

"I can feel you have something son." The father spoke leaning over the table slightly. "If you apply yourself you can do it."

"I'll do it." Sasuke said. "I'll become a Shinigami and protect all of you, unlike before."

"Alright." The father said then went back to eating.

--

"Fuck you, and you, and you, and you!" shouted an orange haired Shinigami, Kurosaki Ichigo, as he looked around the room at two white haired captains, Hitsugaya Toushiro and Ukitake Jushirou, the blonde Namikaze Minato, and the matty haired and tipsy looking Kyouraku Shunsui. "I'm not going to step in for that bastard Renji because you assume I'll do well as a vice-captain. You're all out of your minds."

"But Kurosaki-kun you would be perfect as the Sixth Squad's new vice-captain." Shunsui said with a slightly drunken smile. "You've got the strength to do it too."

"If anything you should be a captain but the superior-commander says that due to you going Ryouka before you actually died it does not seem fitting." Ukitake said with a weak and sickly smile.

"That was almost six years ago!" Ichigo growled as he glared at the captains in the room.

"If you think about how long we have lived that is actually not a very long time Kurosaki-kun." Minato said with a slight smile.

"I don't even know who the hell you are." Ichigo said staring at the blonde captain of the third squad.

"At any rate, this is the job assigned to you by the Soutaichou so you either take it or you'll go out of Seireitei and be forced to live in Rukongai in District 80." Hitsugaya said getting annoyed at Ichigo's persistent refusal.

"And what about Byakuya, what has he said about this?" Ichigo asked annoyed. He knew that the 80th District was bad and he did not want to be there of all places.

"Unlike you Kuchiki-Taicho follows orders from the Soutaichou." Hitsugaya said still annoyed. "He's already been informed and your living arrangements put you in the Kuchiki house."

"You have got to be kidding." Ichigo said with an annoyed eyebrow twitch. "This is all a bad joke right? If I laugh will you guys tell me what I'm really doing?"

"It's the truth Kurosaki-kun." Ukitake said his weak smile remaining. "You are going to be living under the Kuchiki house, and will be the vice-captain of the Sixth Division."

"If you can just agree to this already Namikaze-Taicho will take you to the Kuchiki house and the rest of us can go home." Kyouraku sighed as he pulled out a bottle of sake and a small glass.

"I can't believe this shit." Ichigo said as he sat down. "I'm still having a hard time believing I died."

"That's the second time I've heard something similar to that in the last twenty minutes." Minato said with a smile crossed between sad and happy. "My son died you see and now he is here, a few things were different between you two but the initial idea is that both of you died recently and have to cope with it. You've got more experience being a Shinigami, before this all happened he was a ninja from our part of the many worlds connected to Soul Society. You should consider yourself lucky you're having a vice-captain offered to you. Take the luck now while it lasts Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo stared at the blonde captain before he took a deep breath and then let it out in a sigh. "Fine, I'll take the damn job." He growled getting a smile from Ukitake and Kyouraku and a smirk from Hitsugaya.

"Good," the ice captain said standing up, "Namikaze-Taicho will escort you to the Kuchiki house seeing as he has business there anyway. We will see you later Kurosaki."

"Right." Ichigo said with a shake of his head before Ukitake and Kyouraku stood to leave. After the other captains left Minato looked over at Ichigo with a smile on his face, and for some reason Ichigo felt concerned about it.

"Well on our way over there we'll be taking my son too. I need to talk to Kuchiki-Taicho about him." Minato said as he stood up using his Zanpakutou to push himself up as the sound of footsteps approached. "Here he is."

"This thing is way too baggy." Naruto said sliding the door opening and walking in wearing his blue and white hakama.

"You're not a ninja anymore son, you're going to be a Shinigami so don't complain." Minato said as the young Namikaze as he messed with his obi.

"How the hell am I supposed to move in this thing?" Naruto asked before looking at the orange haired teen then shaking his head. "What the hell am I feeling?"

"It's reiatsu." Minato said with a smile. "Kurosaki-kun happens to have a lot of it and it not very good at keeping it in check. Even if he has been a Shinigami for quiet a long time, but not as long and I have been."

"Right." Naruto said counting in his head," you've been one for about fifteen or more years now right?"

"That's right." Minato said as Ichigo seemed to become a little annoyed.

"Oi, listen I know that you just died kid and you met up with your pops but can we get going." Ichigo said the whole family thing making him a little bored.

"Oh yeah, let's go." Minato said placing his Zanpakutou on his side.

"Why do I need to go now?" Naruto asked wondering why Sanko told him to go to him father.

"You'll see." Minato hummed a song before he led the way out.

--

"So we'll take you to the Shinigami School tomorrow to see if they'll accept you." Sasuke's mother said as she cleaned the dishes.

"I'm sure they will," Sasuke's father said with a smile," he's our son and an Uchiha, he'll do great."

"I pray that you're right." The mother said as she turned to face her family with a kind smile. "I don't think Sasuke deserves to have to stay out here. Seireitei is much more fitting."

Sasuke did not speak; he was still having a hard time accepting that he was with his mother and father at this time. He was dead yet, living. It did not seem real to him.

"Are you feeling alright?" Sasuke's mother asked pressing a hand to his forehead.

"I'm fine." Sasuke said bowing his head away from her.

"I know what's wrong, give him some space. He's just died, and he had to live by himself for a long time. He doesn't believe what is going on. He can't believe that you and I are here." Sasuke's father said reading Sasuke's thoughts exactly.

"I see." The mother said standing up and walking toward the back of the house. "There's a room here for you with a bed already made. It might be a little dusty; I haven't dusted in a week. We were always hoping that we'd never have to have you here though. At least not until you were grown and died of something normal."

"Thank you." Sasuke said nodding to the woman before she vanished into another room.

"Son." The father spoke getting the newly dead Uchiha's attention. "Did you ever discover why Itachi killed us all?"

Sasuke was quiet for a moment wondering if he should tell his father. He stood and began to walk away from the man and paused before the door to his room. "He said…" he paused, "he said he killed everyone just to test his strength." And with that Sasuke went into his room shutting the door behind him. Sasuke stared at the bed in the middle of the room taking in a breath before he walked over to it and lied down. The sun was barely setting but he felt tired and his mind was plagued with thoughts. He simply wanted to rest and that was all.

--

**(Chapter One End)**

Yo everyone! I just typed this all up like real quick. I'm kind of being vague and exact at the same time so I feel I'm doing okay. This is a head's up for the next chapter so like, cool off and listen.

The next chapter is going to have a time jump in it. This chapter was for what Sasuke and Naruto went through after dying. So yeah, here's a preview.

**Chapter Two: The Third in the Sixth and the Sixth of the Third**

_((Preview))_

"_**What did the Taicho want Ichigo?" Naruto asked the orange haired vice-captain of the sixth squad.**_

"_**I don't want to talk about it." Ichigo said with an annoyed growl as he shrugged past the blond Kazuma. "You know you're about as annoying as your dad. Look at the trouble you got me in because you wanted to go off and kill those Hollows on your own. You almost die and I have to get chewed out for me being **_**"unqualified" **_**to lead a simple patrol." **_

"_**Gezz, sorry." Naruto said with a sigh as he rested his hand on his Zanpakutou. "You're wound a little to tight you know that?" **_

"_**Naruto?" questioned a voice that Naruto had not heard in years.**_

"_**No way!" Naruto exclaimed looking behind him…**_

_**TBC…**_

_Yoi ichinichi o._

_((Have a nice day.))_

_Kaiku_


	2. Chapter Two

_Author Time:_

_Hi there everyone and thanks for sticking around and reading my fan fiction from Cliché Hell. (Or not you can decide.) In this chapter I hope to add a few more shinobi from Konoha to the death list. If you didn't pay attention to what I said last time there is a time jump in this. So Naruto and Sasuke are going to be done with school. _

_QUICK EXPLANATION!_

_In this chapter a few references will be made to the school, and I want to tell you now just think about the two of them being at the opposite ends of the social standing. This time though, it's opposite. Sasuke's toward the bottom and Naruto's on the top. I'll explain how they were oblivious of one another's presence. Now! On with the chapter, thank you._

--_  
_

**Chapter Two: The Third of the Sixth and the Sixth of the Third**

"_**It doesn't take time to change one's destiny."**_

**(Third POV)**

**(-Three Years Later-)**

The sun began to rise on the peaceful sight of Seireitei. The sun cast a warm and open appeal to the long houses and halls shattered throughout the city like place of the Shinigami. On the outer rims of the north side, large houses sat with a few people buzzing around, most likely getting ready for the day. Making breakfast and pressing hakama, everyone that was awake in the houses seemed to be busy. Save for one blonde haired ex-shinobi who lay in bed staring up at the ceiling watching the faint shadows of the awakened people pass to-and-fro. He sighed before turning over resting his eyes on a sheathed sword. He again sighed before sitting up and stretching a bit to adjust his limbs before grabbing a hold of his sword and using it to help him up to his feet.

Namikaze Naruto, as he had been addressed for the last three years of his dead life, wore a simple white cotton kimono much like the one he had awoken in so many years ago. The blonde Namikaze cracked his neck a few times before he turned his back quickly left then right cracking his back as well. After he was finished cracking bones he then preceded to rolling his shoulders a few times to get the sleep out of them and the blood flowing at a faster pace.

When he felt he was ready to change into his normal wear he placed his sword on a desk and went to his dresser and pulled out a black hakama top and bottoms with the white obi hanging untied from the hanger. He quickly shed his white kimono leaving him standing in nothing before he first put on his pants. By the time he was halfway finished properly tying his pants up there was a knock on the door. He looked at himself then shook his head as he picked up his shirt and told the person to enter.

"Namikaze-sama," said a male attendant at the door as Naruto faced the man, the blonde's hakama hanging open," Kurosaki-Fukutaicho is here to see you."

"Tell him I'll be out in a minute I'm almost ready." Naruto said as he picked up his white obi and shut his hakama facing away from the door.

"No rush," the voice of Ichigo entered the room causing Naruto to roll his eyes as he stopped what he was doing to peer back at the orange haired vice-captain of the Sixth squad," not like Kuchiki-Taicho ever expects us on time."

"We'd be early if we left now." Naruto said shaking his head as he began to tie the complex knot the obi needed to keep the hakama shut.

"Yep." Ichigo said as he looked out of the open door toward the sand garden. "So what's the rush?"

"No rush I guess." Naruto said as he finished the knot correctly for the first time this week. He then walked over to his Zanpakutou and placed it at his side. "Let's go eat, Ichigo." Naruto said to the orange haired man before he led the way out.

"Yeah, yeah." Ichigo stated as he shut the door behind him and followed the blonde eighteen year old boy. "You know the captain said he wanted to see me first thing when we get in. I have a feeling it has something to do with what you pulled last mission."

"Nah." Naruto said waving a hand before he entered the kitchen. "Why would he be mad about that?"

--

The black haired Uchiha Sasuke was standing in front of the main quarters of the third squad division with his Zanpakutou at his side and a scowl on his face. He was in a bad mood since yesterday because his captain wanted him there early to help him sort out some papers, but the captain of the third squad was late.

For some reason this reminded him of a certain blonde idiot he used to know. Not that his captain already made Sasuke's head pound from just looking like the blonde he had beaten up and left long ago. "Where the hell is Namikaze-Taicho?" he asked himself as he folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm late Sasuke-kun!" called Minato's voice from afar before the captain used a Shunpo and appeared next to the Uchiha. "I had to make sure everything was running smoothly at home before I came. It took a little longer then I thought because my son and Kurosaki-kun were having an interesting conversation about what Kuchiki-Taicho wanted to talk to—" the captain was cut off when Sasuke went inside effectively ignoring everything else he heard from the man.

"He reminds me of Kakashi." Sasuke said to himself before his captain followed shutting the door behind him.

"Ah well it seems that Hikari and Akari-chan did some of the work for us." Minato said as he noticed the papers that _**had **_been on the floor were now stacked neatly on the large desk.

"They've been alphabetized too." Sasuke said looking through a few papers.

"Then we just need to put them away!" Minato sang for joy. "I love those girls." He said as he walked over to the filling cabinets and opened one mark with the current year that was when he felt his heart drop. "That's why the papers are one the desk." He pointed in the cabinet grabbing Sasuke's attention, who sweat dropped seeing the papers sticking up at odd angles.

"Check to see if their in order." Sasuke said then paused. "No wait…" he said stopping his captain. "You just sit in the corner and I'll look. If they are I don't want you pulling them all out and making a mess." He said pushing captain into a seat then looking through the papers himself. "Looks like it's all in order." Sasuke said as he saw the papers just needed to be straightened out. "I'll do this you can go do something else, no offence Taicho but you are a walking disaster."

"Alright." Minato said sadly before walking out slowly, glancing back sadly then shutting the door behind him. After he was a few feet away from the door he jumped for joy and ran. "Haha! No work for me!" he said as he ran his haori flapping in the wind behind him.

Not long after Minato was gone Sasuke had finished putting the papers away. It was easy because Minato was not there to make a quick mess of things. After he was finished the door slid open and Sasuke looked around to see two girls peer inside in fear. After one of the girls spotted Sasuke they both smiled and tackled Sasuke in a hug knocking all three of them to the floor. "Sasuke-kun thank you!!" they both cried tears of joy.

"Get off!" Sasuke shouted loudly as the girls smothered him.

"You stopped the Taicho from making a mess of all of our hard work we owe you our lives!" said one red headed female with green eyes.

"I totally agree." The other female said, she had blue eyes and black hair. "You like so rock Sasuke-kun."

"Get off of me!" Sasuke shouted again as the girls kissed him on each cheek leaving a light pink and red lip mark on each cheek. Sasuke annoyed beyond all reason pushed the girls off and ran out of the room as they called for him to come back. "Crazy ass girls, they're worse then Ino and Sakura." He said as he used Shunpo to get as far away as he could and found himself standing somewhere in the Six Division section of Soul Society. He had never been over here and felt like he was in foreign territory.

--

"What did the Taicho want Ichigo?" Naruto asked the orange haired vice-captain of the sixth squad as he walked out of the captains office.

"I don't want to talk about it." Ichigo said with an annoyed growl as he shrugged past the blond Namikaze. "You know you're about as annoying as your dad. Look at the trouble you got me in because you wanted to go off and kill those Hollows on your own. You almost die and I have to get chewed out for me being "_unqualified_" to lead a simple patrol."

"Gezz, sorry. So much for not wanting to talk about it." Naruto said with a sigh as he rested his hand on his Zanpakutou. "You're wound a little too tight you know that?"

"Naruto?" questioned a voice that Naruto had not heard in a long time.

"No way!" Naruto exclaimed looking behind him to meet eyes with the ten squad captain. "Toushiro!"

"That's Hitsugaya-Taicho." The ice captain said annoyed as the blonde threw an arm around him.

"Come on Toushiro," Naruto laughed as he rocked himself and Hitsugaya back and fourth, "lighten up a little, we're friends."

"Right now we're co-workers, knock it off." Hitsugaya snapped getting Naruto to let go to him, the Namikaze wearing a knowing face laced with annoyance.

"You really need to cool it." Naruto said getting a laugh from Ichigo. "**No pun intended.** Ichigo you really are immature."

"You're one to talk shorty." Ichigo said massing with Naruto's hair before he got glares from both blonde and white haired Shinigami. "Sorry." He said feeling like his un-dead life was in danger.

"One of these days people shorter then you are going to rule the world, what will you do then?" Naruto asked getting a slight laugh from Toushiro.

"Cut my legs off at the knee and blend in." Ichigo joked getting an eye roll from the two shorter Shinigami, as Ichigo fell to his knees quickly then stood back up. "What are you here for anyway Toushiro?"

"Hitsugaya-Taicho!" the captain growled before continuing, "And I'm here to talk with Kuchiki-Taicho about a recon mission."

"The one Renji's on?" Ichigo questioned.

"Yes." The ice captain said with a sigh. "Abarai-kun is supposed to be back soon but the Soutaichou wants to keep you as the Fukutaicho of the Sixth Squad so he was thinking about moving Abarai-kun to the Thirteenth Division so he could fill in as the Fukutaicho there."

"Make sense." Naruto said as the Kurosaki hung his head. "Oh yeah, you don't like working under Kuchiki-Taicho do you?"

"_No, I have a fine time working under someone who has their head rammed so far up their ass they can turn themselves inside out." _Ichigo said his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You can add another month to your punishment." Byakuya's voice said behind Ichigo where Naruto had been starting the whole time Ichigo was speaking.

"See if I actually do it." Ichigo said looking back at the captain but not before getting whacked on the head by a kendo stick. Byakuya had taken up the habit of carrying it around Seireitei in peace time so he could beat Ichigo with it if he said he was not going to do something he had been ordered to do. Ichigo meanwhile had flinched hard from the hit and slouched over handing his head in defeat. "Fine…"

"Good," Byakuya said putting the kendo stick back to his side next to his Zanpakutou, he secretly wished one day he would _accidentally _pull the wrong one and cut Ichigo's head off," I believe you came to speak with me Hitsugaya-Taicho."

"Yes." Hitsugaya said as he walked past the defeated Ichigo who was drawing circles of thin air on the ground with his knees drawn to his chest as Naruto poked his vice-captain. "I'll talk with you two later." Were the last words from the ice captain before he went into Byakuya's office shutting the door behind him.

"I swear he wants to pull the wrong sword one of these days to try and cut my head off." Ichigo said as he stood up. "Come on, we've got to go and patrol around the Division to make sure nothing weird is going on."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Naruto said waving a hand around as he followed Ichigo toward the outside of the Sixth Division doors. Naruto paused half way though to get some candy sitting in a jar left by the female office aide, Megumi, left for the other workers. "Candy, candy, candy." He said to himself picking some for him then Ichigo. He may act like a jerk to his vice-captain but truthfully Naruto thought of Ichigo as a cousin or something of the sort. "Here some candy." He said running over to Ichigo quickly and putting it in the orange haired man's hand before he opened the door to a black haired boy that Naruto took a second to process who it was.

Naruto's eyes went wide, as did Sasuke's as the two ex-ninja looked at one another. "HOLY SHI—" Naruto was cut off as Ichigo put a hand over his mouth and pushed him outside then shut the door. "Sasuke?"

"Naruto?" the Uchiha said staring at Naruto making Ichigo feel left out and ignored.

"Ichigo!" the vice-captain said pointing at himself before Naruto glared at him and pushed him away.

"When did you die?" Naruto asked looking at his best friend and rival.

"I could ask the same thing." Sasuke said as he stared at Naruto shocked.

"You could but I asked first." Naruto said showing that he had not lost his humor over the years.

"About three years." Sasuke said glaring slightly at Naruto.

"No shit, me too." Naruto said looking from Sasuke to Ichigo and back again," I graduated at the top of my class a year and a half ago."

"You?" Sasuke questioned with a slight laugh," no, Namikaze-Taicho's son did."

"I'm Namikaze Minato's son." Naruto said nodding his head," since I've been here I've been Namikaze Naruto."

"Bull shit." Sasuke said annoyed that he did not catch it sooner.

"Where were you?" Naruto asked wondering how he could have missed his best friend.

"More toward the middle." Sasuke said with a slight blush of embarrassment.

"Damn no wonder I missed you." The blonde smiled as he looked at Sasuke. "I've missed you buddy."

"I'm sorry." Sasuke said looking to the floor. He heard Naruto's confusion then continued, "For leaving like I did eight years ago. For beating you up then going to Orochimaru to become stronger, which all I did was fail anyway."

"Its not a big deal anymore." Naruto laughed putting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder. "Leave the problems we had while living with the living, we're dead now, and this time around there's no Itachi or Akatsuki to kill us. Just angry captains and Hollows…and maybe Ichigo's bad humor."

"Funnier then you." Ichigo said glaring at the blonde.

"What Squad are you in?" Naruto asked as the three of them began to walk away from the Sixth Division doors. "I'm in this one sitting on seat three."

"Really? Ironic how mines your numbers switched around." Sasuke said expecting to have to explain it still anyway.

"Sixth seat in the Third Squad?" Naruto questioned surprising Sasuke a bit.

"Yeah, you've gotten smarter." Sasuke said just now remembering how many years they had been apart.

"Hey…" Naruto said annoyed not noticing how Ichigo was feeling about being ignored, "I was not that stupid when we were kids was I?"

"That is a stupid question by itself." Sasuke said.

"Well look who's smarter now." Naruto laughed looking at Ichigo. "Oh yeah! Sasuke this is the vice-captain of the Sixth Division, Kurosaki Ichigo, Ichigo this is Uchiha Sasuke, a friend of mine from back when we were living."

"Isn't this the guy you said ditched you for power?" Ichigo asked getting a sweat drop from Naruto who laughed a bit.

"Yeah, but the past is with the past." Naruto said smiling a little as an eyebrow twitched.

"Whatever you say shorty." Ichigo said as he walked farther ahead.

"The short people will rule the world one day!" Naruto shouted at him as the vice-captain walked away. For some reason watching Ichigo walk away like he was watching an important friend walk away forever. "Hey Sasuke I've got to go we have to patrol around, let's hang out and talk another time okay?"

"Uh, sure." Sasuke said surprised as Naruto thanked him and said he'd meet him at his house sometime. "He's changed." The Uchiha told himself as he watched Naruto's back. "He doesn't depend on me anymore." The raven haired teen said as he watched Naruto catch up to Ichigo with a smile on his face. "Maybe I shouldn't have ever left." Sasuke told himself before he turned and left the Sixth Division.

"I thought you would want to hang out with your buddy some more." Ichigo said after Naruto caught up. "We've got the rest of eternity to do that. Besides…I still feel like our friendship is broken because of what he did. It will take time to mend."

"Trust me all you've got _**is**_ time." Ichigo said folding his hands behind his head. "Feel like watching Toushiro get drunk tonight?"

"I'll be hammered before he is." Naruto said looking up and over at Ichigo.

"Nah," Ichigo said waving a hand before putting it back," you guys hit it about the same time, I swear I shouldn't give you two alcohol but it's funny to watch you guys."

"You still never tell us what happens when we're drunk." Naruto growled. He and Toushiro had terrible drunken memories; all each of them saw was a blur of orange, white, or blonde.

"That would ruin it, besides…half of it is you guys stumbling around and calling each other girly. Pretty funny to me, really funny when I'm buzzed." Ichigo laughed as the two of them walked on.

"Right." Naruto dragged out as he and Ichigo kept walking.

--

"You'll be staying in this room next to my son." Minato's voice said as he pushed to doors open to a dusty room. "You may have to dust no one's been in here for a while."

"Thank you for your hospitably Namikaze-san." said a boy with flat black haired as he gave a bow.

"No problem." Minato said with a smile then turned to leave but was stopped by the black haired boy.

"Are you Naruto-kun's father?" the male asked unsure but he wanted to know.

"Yes I am, so that would be Naruto's room your next too." Minato smiled," Sometimes at night if I walk by and am real quiet about it I can hear him saying your name."

"It must be weird to hear that." The boy said with a slight blush.

"Not at all," Minato said with a grin," I put him through hell by putting the Kyuubi within him; he can live his life and after-life however he wants. Sai-kun please treat my son with love and respect."

"I plan to." Sai said bowing again this time rising with a smile on his face. "I just hope he won't mind I died a year ago."

"I don't think he'll mind at all." Minato said before he began to walk away again, "He really wanted you here."

--

**(-Chapter Two End-)**

Hey people I'm happy to give out another update. You see I'm going to update when I feel like it because I'm writing this more for my own entertainment then for yours. That's why the next chapter is going to be fun for me and not so much for some if you don't like crossover pairings. So anyway, back to the point.

**No Chapter Preview**

I swear I do these on a whim, and my whim says no. Too much is going to happen next chapter to let you know about any of it. _Yes I enjoy tomenting those who actually read this._ There will be BL and maybe even yaoi in the next chapter, turn back now if you wish. This means BoyxBoy action. (If you didn't know.) Now you've been warned see you all next update.

_Yoi ichinichi o._

--Kaiku--


	3. Chapter Three

_Author Time:_

No one has helped me come up with pairings (you guys are no fair.) So I've been doing some research on my own and find that the popular couples I don't like all that much. For some reason or another, concerning Bleach, I am utterly fascinated with IchiHitsu. (IchigoxHitsugaya for all of you abbreviation retarded people) I don't really understand why I like this I seem to always like weird couples. An example is one of my favorite Beyblade couples ReTy (Rei/RayxTakao/Tyson) I have no idea why I like it. Another, which is rare, (I don't know why it is I can so see this happening in a dominance kind of way) ByaIchi, if you don't know what I mean because you "see IchiBya everywhere" this is for people that still don't get it, (in other words people newer to Shonen-ai/Yaoi or just lazy/stupid) the first name on the couple is the one on top! NaruSasu does not mean that Naruto is a uke that means he should be seme. If you are looking properly and everything is done right then if you want Uke Naruto you type in SasuNaru or SaiNaru, and so on. If you've been using it either way you've been wrong, on top of the fact that other people have been doing things the stupid way. (Yes I am insulting people but I don't care this has to be said.) I do understand though that sometimes it is easier and more popular to do it either way and I respect that but I still call you stupid if you automatically assume that it means either way. Think of it this way so you get it from now on,

"**Semes top/ukes." **

So there you go, that is your yaoi lesson if you didn't already know this. If you knew it already, good job, here's a cookie.

(I don't know why I always make these so long, they just wind up that way. Oh well.)

On with the chapter!

--

**Chapter Three: Drunken Mistakes**

"_**A drunken man's words are a sober man's thoughts."**_

**(Third POV)**

Hitsugaya Toushiro sat in his office a few hours after he had talked with Kuchiki-Taicho about what was happening with Ichigo. The captain of the Sixth Division was not happy to hear that he had to keep Ichigo as his vice-captain until the end of time or until someone decided to make the orange haired Zangetsu wielder a captain.

As usual Matsumoto Rangiku was sleeping on the couch and Hitsugaya was finishing up paper work that had stacked up over the week. He put the paper work away in the filing cabinet and sighed before looking back at Matsumoto with an annoyed look. '_Does she ever stop sleeping when she's at work? What the hell does she do all night?' _the young captain asked himself as he shook his head and began to leave. He was looking forward to a nice and peaceful night.

"Toushiro!" Naruto's voice called as Hitsugaya opened the door and was confronted by the two Division Six Shinigami, Ichigo and Naruto.

"What do you two want?" Toushiro asked annoyed by the grins on each of the Sixth Division annoyances.

"Are you taking the rest of the night off?" Ichigo asked bringing attention to the fact the sun had set about an hour ago.

"Why?" Hitsugaya asked as he could hear Matsumoto waking up.

"Want to go and have a few drinks?" Naruto questioned as Ichigo held up a sake bottle and Naruto showed a small bag most likely with alcohol in it as well.

Hitsugaya looked back at Matsumoto then to Naruto and Ichigo before he sighed and stepped out. "Let's go." He said to the two other Shinigami who both gave a whoop then followed quickly. "We'll go to my place."

"Ah, yes, your place, we go there a lot." Naruto laughed as he put his hands behind his head the hanging from his right hand lightly bouncing against his back with each step he took.

"Well that's because I'm stuck in the Kuchiki house, and your dad doesn't like you getting drunk. Toushiro's is the best place to go." Ichigo said as he pointed at himself then Naruto and ending with Hitsugaya before he let his empty hand fall to his side.

"Only because we're not working," Toushiro told himself trying to ignore the two that kept calling him by his first name. He had given up trying to make them call him Hitsugaya-Taicho about three months ago when he realized that a year and a half of telling them not to call him Toushiro was not working. If anything he had gotten used to being called Toushiro by the two younger Shinigami. Hitsugaya had made the two younger light haired death gods agree to call him Hitsugaya-Taicho when they we're working or in the presence of certain individuals such as Kuchiki Byakuya, and the Soutaichou.

"I'm going to time you two tonight." Ichigo said snapping Toushiro from his thoughts and wondering what the orange haired vice-captain was talking about. "I'll time how long it takes you two to get drunk."

"What makes you think you'll be sober enough to know it?" Naruto questioned his and Hitsugaya's annoyance clear in his voice.

"Because I have been every other time," Ichigo said smirking as the three reached the Tenth Division's captain's house, "Don't worry I'll keep you two from doing anything really stupid."

"Like what?" Toushiro questioned as he opened his door and lead the way inside taking his waraji off and leaving them at the door.

_(A/N: Waraji are the type of sandals that you see most of the Bleach Shinigami wearing. Hakama are the outfits and the Kimonos are kind of like what Rukia was wearing during her Rescue arc. Just F.Y.I.)_

"Just stupid, I don't know what yet, you two do random ass shit all of the time, I can never predict what you're going to do." Ichigo said shaking his head as he looked around the small apartment house.

"How nice." Hitsugaya said as he took off his haori and hung it up in his hall closet. He then walked to the living room where the three of them would be spending the next few hours drinking. He placed his Zanpakutou down on a sword frame before he walked out of the living room and into the kitchen to fetch some snacks. Ichigo placed his Zanpakutou on the ground next to the doorway in the living room and the sake bottle on the kotatsu. Naruto placed the small bag on the kotatsu like Ichigo but he placed his Zanpakutou next to the place he would be sitting at the table.

(_A/N: Kotatsus are the, short to the ground, tables with the blankets.) _

"You really dig the old Japanese stuff huh?" Ichigo asked looking around at the traditional Japanese room.

"Unless you didn't notice," Hitsugaya said as he walked back in carrying a small trey," I'm not as young as I look." The ice captain said annoyed.

"Oh yeah." Ichigo said as he sat down grabbing Naruto's bag and opening it. He pulled out seven items: three sake glasses, three shot glasses, and one bottle of tequila. He put all of those things down on the table before rummaging around again in the bag and pulling out a salt shaker, and three lemons. "We're doing all of this right this time." He said with a grin as Toushiro sweat dropped.

"You really are an idiot." Toushiro said as he shook his head taking a bite of one of the rice cakes he had brought out.

"How am I an idiot? I made sure we got everything right this time." Ichigo said looking at Naruto who shrugged. "Last time he just had tequila and nothing else, it burned like hell, and I stopped drinking before I even got a buzz because I couldn't stand it."

"That just makes you a pussy." Naruto laughed. "At least Toushiro and I kept going."

"Only because you two got to drunk to even realize you were drinking something that burns the back of your throat." Ichigo said shaking his head. "Although you guys were still bitching about it as you jacked the bottle from one another."

"My job sucks." Toushiro said as he finished the rice cake giving that as an excuse for his avid drinking. He found that he did not much like being the only one in his office that did work so when he could he acted as loose as he wanted to.

"My dad doesn't want me drinking, and I have a problem with authority." Naruto said giving his reason as he chewed on a strawberry Pocky stick.

"You take Byakuya's orders." Ichigo said a bit confused.

"Authority that doesn't scare me, I've watched what he does to you, screw that." Naruto explained finishing the Pocky stick quickly.

"You never saw your dad when he was pissed off then." Hitsugaya said pointing at Naruto with a Pocky stick before he ate it. "That was scary."

"Enough idle chat, lets drink!" Ichigo said pouring shots and cutting lemons quickly with a small knife he pulled from the bag effectively finishing off what was in it.

After each of the Shinigami were given a shot with a lemon slice and had salted the side of their hands they each held the glass up. "KENPAI!" they each shouted before taking the salted hand to their mouths then downing the shot and soon after taking the lemon and sucking some of the juice out of it.

"That was _**good**_!" Naruto expressed as all three slammed their glasses on the kotatsu and took a breath.

"I think I need about fifty more of those." Hitsugaya said pushing the glass to Ichigo so he could serve the drinks again.

"Try two." Ichigo laughed knowing his little friends better then they knew themselves.

"Stop talking and get to serving!" Naruto said his face already looking a little red.

"Alright you hit it a little faster then Toushiro." Ichigo told his friend as he served out the drinks and they repeated the action from before.

"Shut up." Both of the shorter Shinigami said as they pushed their glasses at Ichigo again.

"This is going to be an interesting night." Ichigo laughed to himself.

_**(-Two Hours Later-)**_

"You're the girly one you blonde bastard." Hitsugaya said in a drunken slur as he retaliated against Naruto's consent pestering that the ice captain was girly.

"Dump water on my head and my hair still is above my shoulder, dump water on your head and we might as well stuff your shirt and call you Toushiko." Naruto laughed pointing at Toushiro with a heavy drunken blush on the ex-ninja's face.

"That doesn't change the fact that you're girly." Toushiro said giving a very poor argument.

"I'm not but you are _Toushiko_." Naruto purred drinking the sake from the glass before him. The group had long since finished the tequila and was now on the sake.

"If I am girly then you are gay." Toushiro said with a smirk.

"So you admit it?" Naruto questioned shaking back and forth a little.

"Are you gay?" Hitsugaya questioned.

"There you go Ichigo, Toushiko admitted she's girly." Naruto said looking at the slightly buzzed Ichigo who was now drinking coffee and just serving the sake.

"And that means you're gay!" Toushiro growled thinking Naruto did not understand him.

"Will you stop saying that? It's annoying." Naruto said glaring at Toushiro a little.

"Then stop calling me girly you prick." Hitsugaya said draining his glass.

Ichigo watched for a moment the coffee cup close to his mouth before he lowed it and raised an eyebrow. "Toushiro, we established that the brat was gay a long time ago, when we were sober, a few weeks ago actually."

Toushiro stopped all movement for a moment then looked at Naruto before he held the glass to Ichigo. "I forgot." The captain said as he let his hand fall after Ichigo took the glass.

"You've been denied!" Naruto laughed eating the last of the rice cakes.

"You…just shut up." Hitsugaya said as Ichigo poured two more glasses before getting up to go and put the now empty sake bottle away and fill up his coffee cup. It was nearing three AM in Soul Society. Ichigo wondered if he should Shunpo over to the Namikaze house and tell Minato Naruto was staying at Hitsugaya's or to take Naruto home after he fell asleep.

After decided on going over to the Namikaze place and telling Minato his son was staying over here Ichigo walked back into the living room where Naruto and Toushiro had found a new argument on weather the Tenth Division captain was gay or not. "I'll be right back argue with one another while I'm gone." He said before picking up Zangetsu and then going to put his waraji on. He glanced back one more time before he opened the door and walked out taking in the night air before shutting the door behind him and vanishing in a few seconds.

Ichigo made it to the Namikaze house in no time just as Minato walked out of the door. "Yo Namikaze-Taicho." Ichigo called getting the older blonde's attention.

"Kurosaki-kun, do you know where Naruto is?" Minato asked looking relieved.

"Yeah, he's back at Hitsugaya-Taicho's place. We went over there after our shifts were over and we've been hanging out for a while now. The brat is basically passed out in the middle of Hitsugaya-Taicho's living room so I thought I'd run by here real quick to tell you he'd be staying over at the captain's house."

"Oh," Minato sounded then smiled, "Alright, if he's still awake when you get back over there tell him that there is someone special here waiting for him." Minato smiled.

"Who?" Ichigo questioned," If it's that Uchiha guy he already knows about him."

"No, not him." Minato said. "Just tell him it's someone he's been waiting for."

"Alight." Ichigo said as he turned to leave. "I'll see you later Namikaze-Taicho."

"Have a nice night." Minato said waving to Ichigo as the vice-captain was gone in one quick Shunpo. "I was hopping that those two could meet tonight though." He said to himself before shrugging and going back inside.

--

"No shouting?" Ichigo questioned as he walked back inside taking off his waraji then walking to the living room. He was about to open the door when he heard something that made the blood drain form his face, or run right up there, he could not decide which as he pulled his hand back quickly from the shoji. Loud moans could be heard coming from the room just beyond the paper door and Ichigo feared what he might see if he opened it. "Hell no." Ichigo said to himself as he pointed at the door and shook his head.

Another moan was issued making Ichigo jump before he waved his hands through the air and walk way to the kitchen. There was no way in hell that Ichigo was going to deal with whatever was going on in the room. He was going to stay in the kitchen all night if he had too. "Or sleep in Toushiro's room." Ichigo told himself as he went over the options. He shook his head thinking it would have been a bad idea as it was. All he knew was that he was never going to look at Toushiro the same way again. He had never really cared that Naruto was gay.

Part of the orange haired Shinigami wanted to know what was going on and how it was even possible but the rest of him cringed at the thought as he sat at the kitchen table. He put his head down on the table trying to ignore the moans that were becoming louder. Ichigo had identified the loud moans as Naruto and wondered to himself, again, how it was even possible.

--

By the time morning rolled about Ichigo had somehow fallen asleep with his head on the table. He had been asleep for about three hours when a loud scream issued jolting him awake. He went through a list of things in his head of what could have been the reason for the scream before it rested on the sounds he had heard last night. "I was in the kitchen and fell asleep after I got back from telling Namikaze-Taicho the brat was staying over here. I had no idea what was happening in the living room I swear." Ichigo ran the excuse he had made last night one more time through before he ran to the living room and took a deep breath hoping he was not going to see anything he did not want to see.

"What's going on!?" He shouted the question slamming the door open as the two shorter Shinigami has flattened themselves on the walls opposite of one another holding up hakama shirts to cover themselves. "What he hell?" Ichigo said in a convincing lost voice.

"Oh my god." Toushiro said as he stared at Naruto lost for words.

Naruto on the other hand was opening and closing his mouth gasping for air and then trying to make words but failing. He was stunned. He had woken up without anything on, and a slightly muscled are around his waist. He looked over to see Toushiro with nothing on and connected to the arm around the Namikaze's waist.

"I'll come back in a few minutes." Ichigo said shutting the door quickly before leaning on the wall next to the shoji and taking a breath.

Meanwhile in the room Naruto's eyes looked like they might pop out of his head as he remembered everything from last night right up until he passed out from exhaustion after he and Toushiro had sex.

(_A/N: I do write lemons I just don't want to write one right now, use your lovely imaginations and make one in your head.) _

The two stared at one another for a long time until Naruto scrambled to dress himself and grab his Zanpakutou before he slammed the shoji open and ran down the hall. He put his waraji on without tying them then flew out the door and in one quick Shunpo he was gone.

Ichigo watched the blonde vanish before he decided he just wanted to leave before things got to bizarre to handle. He quickly made it out of the house then felt around for Naruto, the least he could do was try to calm the Namikaze down. When he found the large reiatsu from the third seat of the Sixth Division Ichigo sped off to where Naruto was.

While Ichigo went after Naruto Hitsugaya Toushiro sat on the floor covered only by a hakama shirt with his hands in his face. He felt embarrassed and like a fool. "The stupid and regrettable things people do when they're drunk have no limits." Hitsugaya said to himself as he pulled his knees to his chest and buried his head there. He was upset about what he had done and he had a hangover. Not a good combination for the young looking captain of ice.

--

Ichigo and Naruto sat in dead silence on a tall tree outside of the Namikaze residence. Naruto has his knees drawn to his chest and his back against the tree trunk as Ichigo had one knee raised and the other leg hanging over the limb the two sat on. Ichigo had no idea what to say but he felt like he had to at least be there for Naruto. The young boy looked like he was in real bad shape.

"Ichigo…" Naruto said at long last, "If I slept with someone, even if I'm dead and my real love is alive, does that make me a whore?"

"That's a stupid question, and it wasn't intentional." Ichigo said his face burning. It was his fault that the two younger looking Shinigami were feeling terrible right now. If he would have just went in the living room and broke the two up he would not be feeling like hell right now and the two younger looking ones could laugh it off.

"It's still my question and I'm asking you for an answer." Naruto said not looking up.

"No," Ichigo said unsure of how to explain that Naruto was not a whore," you two were drunk…you guys didn't know, and… and maybe there was a reason the two of you did that. Like a deeper connection or something."

"I'm not going to blame you so you can stop turning red now." Naruto said looking up at his vice-captain. "It was my own fault."

"Don't beat yourself up about it." Ichigo said leaning over and patting Naruto on the head. "It happens to the best of us, I'll do something stupid like that too sometime sooner or later too. All we can do is try to either forget about it or make something out of it." Ichigo was surprised with himself. He actually sounded smart and like he knew what he was talking about.

"I guess it was stupid." Naruto said as he let his legs hand over the left side of the tree branch. His hakama was open and his pants clung slightly to his hips threatening to fall off if he stood up without holding them up or securing them. "I should go back and talk to Toushiro huh?"

"If you feel like you need to." Ichigo said with a shrug.

"Well…" Naruto paused looking at his shirt. "I did grab his shirt." He said causing Ichigo to almost fall out of the tree. "I'll change into something clean then go back. Are you going to come too?" Naruto really did not want to go by himself.

"If you want me to be there." Ichigo said with a smirk. The vice-captain did not want to go back but he would if he was asked to. He still blamed himself for the whole thing.

"Thanks Ichigo." Naruto smiled before he jumped down and landed peacefully holding his pants up as he walked to his room which faced the outside of the house.

(**Naruto POV)**

I have never felt this embarrassed in my life. Well, maybe not, I remember feeling this way only two other times: when Sasuke and I accidentally kissed when that damn kid in the front row knocked me into Sasuke, and when Sai saw my penis after he pissed me off in the onsen and I stood up to accidentally show him that. Both of those incidents had sparked a relationship for me, Sasuke's ending after he tried to kill me after we found him after three and a half years, and Sai's "ending" when I died. I loved Sai so much that I felt like it would have been forever but it only lasted a few months. I guess in a technical way Sasuke's and mine was longer but I think that Sai's and mine had a lot more passion in it. I was still always toe to toe with Sasuke on who was the better ninja. With Sai it did not matter who was stronger, I just loved him. I was far from a virgin on top of all of that. I had actually given that away to Sai not Sasuke. It would have been Sasuke if we were older and knew what we were doing. We were only twelve what did we know about sex? Nothing. Sai was nineteen when we first did it so it wasn't as bad. He was still a pedophile but I loved him so what did it matter.

I walked into my room shutting the shoji behind me sighing as I looked at my shadow remembering Sai. I missed him so much I could die all over again. I had to wonder to myself if a relationship would spark with Toushiro as I began to change out of the old pants and Toushiro's shirt into a clean hakama. I left the pants on the floor not feeling like putting them in the clothes hamper before I replaced my Zanpakutou on my side and turning back to the shoji to leave. After I shut the door after stepping out I was about to Shunpo back to Ichigo when my heart stopped and I looked to my left to see flat black hair and almost white pale skin. After it processed I realized what I was looking at. I was looking at, "Sai."

"It's been a while hasn't it Naruto-kun?" Sai asked a smile on his face as he pushed himself off of the wall and faced me.

I felt horrible. I had just slept with Toushiro and now Sai is here, and a Shinigami on top of it; meaning he has been dead for a longer time then a few hours or days. "I'm sorry." I said as I stepped back from him. I did not deserve someone like Sai. I loved Sai and I know Sai loved me, but how could I be his lover if I can be so easily slept with. "I'm sorry, Sai. I…I can't." I said stepping back again as he stepped toward me. "I have to go." I said clutching Toushiro's shirt in my hand before I looked up at Sai's face to see confusion. "I can't explain…" I said before I used Shunpo and appeared next to Ichigo before dodging off again.

"Oi brat, wait up!" Ichigo called as he followed me quickly. I stopped not far from Toushiro's front door and slammed my back into the wall before I slid down and started to cry into Toushiro's shirt. It was too much. I loved Sai, and Sai was here but I felt dirty. I could not go near him. Not with my dirty self.

"Hey what the hell happened? Why did you run off like that?" Ichigo asked from afar as he jogged over to me. He stopped a few feet away when he heard my crying. At least that was what I thought until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up into the turquoise eyes of Hitsugaya Toushiro, who was now fully dressed save for his haori. I stared into those eyes for a few seconds before I felt the tears coming faster then before and dove into the Tenth Division captain's arms. I just wanted to be held right now and Toushiro was the only one that I trusted to hold me at this time. I don't know why but, I just did.

I'm sorry Sai.

--

**(-Chapter Three End-)**

That was fun! I made Ichigo paranoid, Hitsugaya gay, and Naruto emo all in one chapter! Yay!! This is going to become more fun next chapter with some more crossover shipping then some Bleach yaoi, and then we'll hit a jealously thing with Sai, Sasuke, and Hitsugaya all rolled into one! Hate me if you will for crossover shipping but I think it's cute and I have been dieing to do this for ages. So yeah…It's about four thirty in the morning now. (I try to finish one chapter in a sitting so I know what I am doing when I start typing after stopping.) I'm going to go to bed now and type a new chapter after driving school and senior pictures tomorrow.

**GO CLASS OF 2008!! **

**(-Still no Chapter Preview-)**

_**This means it's too good to spoil anything.**_

Yoi Ichinichi o.

--Kaiku--


	4. Chapter Four

_Author Time:_

I am really up set right now for a few reasons. One: I was going to go to AX my mom and dad told me that they were going to take me and we had this thing planned, I even invited some friends to come with me, we were going to have so much fun but then my dad says be have to go to this STUPID baby shower that I don't want to go to. (I'm going to exercise my right of rebellion as a teenager and not go! That is my spite for you stupid people!!) Two: Multiple events have left me felling like crap, my "best friend" (which I am starting to question that) said she would come over but never did and never called to tell me why then fed me this BULL about how she was busy moving. (My ass) After being told that I wasn't going to AX (Anime Expo in California if you didn't know) I tried to talk with this friend of mine and she told me the bull then we talked about our senior pictures and how we all got them taken. I might note that there was this _**REALLY,**_ _**REALLY, REALLY **_hot guy taking our pictures. Well anyway, she went before I did and all of that other crap because it was scheduled that way. She went with another one of her friends and all she could talk about after I spoke with her on the IM was how much the hot guy was filtering with her. I already have a hard enough time getting a boyfriend as it is so her talking about how much he liked her only pissed me off more then I already was. Everyone knows the steps in anger right? Well I went from pissed off to depressed and right back to pissed off, within five minutes. I have never felt this angry or jealous toward my friend and it made me realize I have problems and that I need to get a boyfriend or a fucking life. (Don't worry I'm not going to stop writing, writing is my vent for problems…Mostly.) So yeah…If you read this you either think right about now I either wasted your time or you feel bad for me or you're laughing at me for being emo. I'm sorry and I will now give you fan fiction and all of that other good stuff. Excuse me as I hide in a corner drawing cuts on my arm with a sharpie repeating "I'm turning emo."

--

**Chapter Four: Break Down, Break Up, Broken**

"_**Being alone is like freezing to death."**_

**(Hitsugaya POV)**

"Hey what the hell happened? Why did you run off like that?" Ichigo's voice intruded on my thoughts as I tried to pick up the pieces of what happened last night in my memory. I took a wild guess that Naruto was here as well. I went to my door and peered outside slowly until I saw that the blonde Namikaze of the Sixth Division was crying. Ichigo stopped approaching Naruto when he saw me stride out of my apartment and to Naruto's side. I placed a hand on the young Shinigami's shoulder. He flinched a little before looking up from the shirt he was crying into. I guessed it was mine. Naruto stared at me for a few seconds before he jumped into my arms crying harder then he was before. Something had to have happened to make him this upset.

I felt a tear in my chest as I slowly reached my arms around him and hugged him in return. As I held Naruto his grip became tighter as his head tried to merge with my chest. I had no idea what happened but I swore I would make whoever made his cry pay. I glared over at Kurosaki as I tightened my grip on the blonde in my arms.

"What happened?" I asked scaring the orange haired vice-captain with the tone of my voice.

"I don't know I swear!" Ichigo said putting his arms up in defense. "We went to his place and he changed when he came back he was already really up-set, I don't know why."

"Naruto," I said looking down at him with soft eyes, "What happened? Why are you crying?" He did not answer me he just kept crying, his tears soaking my shirt. I tightly griped his shirt in my hands as I forced him as close as I could, squeezing my eyes shut and giving a pleading voice, "Please tell me, I can't help if I don't know."

"Sai." He murmured in my chest. That was all I needed. I remembered Naruto had told us about this Sai person. Sai had been the Namikaze's boy-friend before the blonde died. From the way he was crying and that name I came to the conclusion that Sai was here now and Naruto saw him earlier.

"I see." I said as I loosened my grip and held him as lightly and tightly as possible. I told myself I would send a note to Kuchiki-Taicho and ask that Naruto spend the day with me. Kurosaki could take the note to his captain. The last thing Naruto needed to do today was work.

--

**(Third POV)**

**(-Sometime Later-)**

"I feel like such an asshole." Ichigo told himself as he walked to the Sixth Division with a note in hand from Toushiro. '_If I had just stopped them none of this drama would be happening right now.' _Ichigo thought before he spotted a mop of black hair standing before the Sixth Squad doors. "Sasuke, right?" Ichigo questioned the ravened haired boy as he approached.

"And you're Kurosaki-Fukutaicho." Sasuke said turning to face the orange haired vice-captain.

"At least we've got names down." Ichigo smiled a bit before his face fell again.

"Where is Naruto? I asked your captain and he said you two are glued at the hip." Sasuke said his voice carrying a bit of jealousy.

"He's…" Ichigo paused before shaking his head, "First I've to give this to my captain then I need to talk with you before I tell you anything." Kurosaki said before walking into the Sixth Division doors. He walked over to the desk where Byakuya sat and placed the note on his desk. "Here, from Hitsugaya-Taicho."

"Where's your blonde double?" Byakuya asked raising an eyebrow slightly before reading the note. He looked up at Ichigo then back to the note again before placing to his left. "Fine." Was all he said before Ichigo nodded, gave a slight, bow and left.

Byakuya's face remained stoic until Ichigo was gone. The black haired Shinigami then raised an eyebrow high and blinked a few times at the door Ichigo had left from. '_Did he just…?' _He paused thinking before shrugging it off and going back to writing kanji, '_It must be serious if he actually showed me respect.' _The captain thought to himself taking a breath before rubbing his eyes.

--

"Will you start talking already?" Sasuke growled. He was concerned that Naruto might be hurt or something worse he was scared that his Naruto was in pain.

"What is Naruto to you?" Ichigo asked. Sasuke had no knowledge of this but when Ichigo used Naruto's name and did not call him brat or shorty he was being deathly serious.

"My friend," Sasuke said simply but could see it was not enough, "A friend, a rival, some one I care for more then anything else, someone I would give my life to protect because I know he would do the same for me."

"Would you protect him even if you knew he wouldn't save you?" Ichigo asked staring at Sasuke for a few moments before Sasuke gave a nod. "Come on." He said leading the way to the Tenth Division quarters where he had left Toushiro and Naruto by themselves.

The two quickly reached the Division doors where Ichigo told Sasuke to wait outside before he went in. Once inside he felt the reiatsu tension in the air. It was cold and hot on two different sides of the room and it was so thick one could not even cut it with a knife; one would have to hack at it for one-hundred years just to make a scratch. "Hey…" he said suddenly the tension lifting drastically. "I brought that guy from yesterday to see you, Sasuke, he's concerned about you." Kurosaki said to Naruto.

"What did you tell him?" Naruto questioned his voice raspy.

"Nothing, Byakuya said we were glued to the hip so Sasuke worried when he didn't see you with me." Ichigo said kneeling down next to his friend. "Should I let him in?"

"Sure." Naruto said looking away from Ichigo as the vice-captain stood up and opened the door. This time Sasuke was not alone but had Matsumoto with him.

"You can come in." Ichigo said then looked at Matsumoto, "I'd question if you want to."

"I'll be fine." Rangiku said as she pushed past Ichigo after Sasuke went in. Ichigo shrugged before shutting the door and looking into the room. Matsumoto was giving a worried look to her captain and Sasuke had a shocked anxious looked fixed on Naruto.

"Naruto…you look like a mess." Sasuke said getting over the initial shock of seeing Naruto in such an emotionally distort state.

"If you wouldn't have left you might have been able to see this before." Naruto bringing his knees to his chest, the room gained a light breeze carrying the cold about evening the temperature of the room.

"Is this why you're up set?" Sasuke asked sitting by Naruto and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Please," Naruto said shrugging Sasuke's shoulder off and looking away, a little pissed off, "I'm way over you." He said heaving a sigh. "The minute I realized you were really gone I gave up on you."

Sasuke froze as his heart sank. What had he done?

"I thought for a moment that maybe you would come back when we found you at that hide out. I almost was sure of it but you tried to kill me and left again," Naruto continued as the breeze blew harder but the hair grew colder, "my relationship with you as long since been resolved as over to me. I have bigger issues to deal with."

"Naruto I," Sasuke began but paused. He took no notice of the cold room from the slowly growing anger of the captain or the other two vice-captain Shinigami, "I left so I could become stronger, I couldn't become any stronger if I stayed in Konoha."

"You wanted to be stronger to kill your brother," Naruto was now the one getting mad, he knew all of the bull Sasuke was trying to feed him. He had heard it before and it played over and over in his head, "which you failed to do apparently. You threw away your life in Konoha to hang out with a guy that was most likely going to rape you before taking your body as his own, and threw me away like I was nothing but a passing fancy." Naruto was now on his feet glaring the Uchiha down, the Namikaze's reiatsu unchecked as he let it pour into the room giving Sasuke an invisible ton of pressure to sit under. "If you try to justify your actions anymore then you are right now I swear to God I will cut your fucking head off."

"That would be unfavorable." Minato's voice announced his arrival at the door. "That's my sixth seat, I really cannot have you two fighting."

"Get over it." Naruto seethed bottling up his reiatsu again before moving away from Sasuke and sitting on a lone chair.

"He's pissed. I don't think it's a good idea to do anything that might kill someone." Ichigo said with a side glace to the captain of the Third Division.

"I can tell." Minato said before smiling at Toushiro. "I have come to bring you your new recruit fresh from school." Naruto's ears perked a bit as he heard this news; he had a bad feeling that he was not going to like what would walk through that door. "This is Uzuki Sai."

_((A/N: I'll explain the last name later just go with it. It's awesome if you already get it, and yeah, it's made up because Sai doesn't have a real last name that I know of.))_

"Hello." Sai said bowing to his captain then glancing around the room. Naruto hid himself behind Matsumoto in a split second, Sasuke was still trying to catch his breath from his near death experience with Naruto, Hitsugaya looked mildly surprised, and Ichigo was staring at Naruto who was behind Matsumoto, who looked confused. Sai felt that there was some serious tension going on in the room.

Hitsugaya's eyes traveled from Sai to Naruto then slowly back to Sai. The Tenth Division captain felt a slight jealousy toward the dark haired new member. "Welcome to the Tenth Squad, I am your captain Hitsugaya Toushiro." Hitsugaya said standing up and walking over to Sai as the Uzuki boy stared at Matsumoto in an unfocused way. Like he was trying to look behind her, but he could not. Naruto was effectively hidden behind Matsumoto due to his small stature and her tallness and large upper chest.

"It's nice to meet you." Sai said bowing a little snapping attention away from Matsumoto and to Hitsugaya.

"That is Matsumoto Rangiku your vice-captain." Hitsugaya said point at the large breasted woman. Rangiku gave a slight bow not bowing too low though, she had a feeling that it would be a good idea to try and keep Naruto hidden.

"Hello." Sai said to Matsumoto trying to look around her a bit. Sai was thinking that Naruto was here because he saw Sasuke. After gazing at Matsumoto a bit longer before glancing at Sasuke who was staring at him over the couch, "Hello Sasuke-kun, it's been a while."

"Yeah, sure." Sasuke said as he raised an eyebrow. The Uchiha had only met Sai once when the group of team seven had found him after three and a half years of searching. "I don't like you." Sasuke said glaring slightly at the artist ninja. "I don't understand why but I don't."

"That's alright because I hate you too, for hurting Naruto-kun that is." Sai said with one of his smiles that meant he hated the person but wanted to show hospitably.

"Then we're at an agreement." Sasuke said standing up and glancing at Naruto who he could still see. At this moment in time Sasuke decided he would get Naruto back no matter what. He was going to beat Sai and anyone else who tried to take Naruto's heart.

"As it seems we are." Sai kept smiling. He worried under all of the smiles that Naruto and Sasuke had gained a relationship during the years the two were dead together.

"Then we're rivals," Sasuke said giving his own cocky smirk, "nothing else to get in our way." Sasuke said not knowing anything about Hitsugaya and what had happened between the two Shinigami the night prior to what was now happening.

Hitsugaya knew though, and it made him a little pissed that the two were talking about Naruto like they were. "Listen here the both of you," Hitsugaya said stepping between them, "leave your personal squabbles outside of the work place or I'll freeze you both for the next hundred years." His voice serious as the air in the room got colder.

"Yes captain." Sai said shivering slightly as Sasuke turned his head.

"Well now that that's over…" Minato said bobbing his head around a little, "I guess I won't ask about Naruto since that would be personal. I'll get be going back to my Division, Sasuke-kun come on you too."

"Yes Taicho." Sasuke hissed annoyed before glaring at Sai and following his captain.

"Uzuki," Hitsugaya said feeling like getting rid of Sai, "You'll be sweeping the floors outside of the Division, get to work."

"Understood." Sai said bowing before opening the door behind him and leaving.

"Too much in one day…" Naruto said stepping out from behind Matsumoto and sitting in the single chair.

"And it's not even half over." Ichigo said sitting on the couch as Matsumoto took a seat next to him he continued, "What do you make of what that Uchiha said to Uzuki?"

"I don't care." Naruto said bringing his knees to his chest, "It's stupid and pointless."

"Stupid and pointless huh?" Ichigo said kicking back after placing Zangetsu next to him, "Doesn't sound like the brat I know…"

"Right now I don't want to be the Naruto anyone knows." The blonde Namikaze said, "I just want to sit and sulk."

"You can sit in here but you're not permitted to sulk." Toushiro's voice invaded Naruto's thoughts. "I know what happened last night was bad but that doesn't mean you have to let it control you." The ice captain was surprising all of the people in the room. "Get back on your feet Namikaze, I'm not going to keep letting you ditch your duties to sort out personal problems."

"Toushiro…" Naruto said looking at the captain slowly. He thought over what he was doing and how things right now were going and wondered what he should do, he loved Sai, and he shouted at Sasuke because he knew he still loved Sasuke too. He was so lost and confused that Naruto had no idea what to do. He wondered if he could find anyone who was having the same problems he was having. "Alright…" Naruto said standing up and stretching before smiling like an idiot and looking around the room, "You're right. I can't keep being all sulky and stuff. I need to be serious and do my job! So far doing my job has earned me my third seat in one of the toughest Divisions!"

"No shit." Ichigo said with a laugh.

"Let's go to work." Naruto said to Ichigo.

"Are you kidding?" Ichigo asked, "That ass hat said that you could have the day off, and I am supposed to make sure you'll be okay. Screw that, let's just sit around."

_((A/N: Ichigo is going to one day regret all of the names he is calling Bya-kun. XD))_

Naruto stared at Ichigo for a moment before smirking and laughing a bit. "You're going to get your ass kicked one of these days for the names you keep calling Kuchiki-Taicho."

"Maybe, but he's not here and I feel like insulting him." Ichigo smirked kicking back.

"I seriously mean that we should go in for work now though." Naruto said folding his arms and shifting his weight to one leg. "I want to do something other then sit around."

"I could always put you to work." Hitsugaya smirked.

"Nah I'm good." Ichigo said not moving. He did not notice the side glance glare he was receiving from Matsumoto, she wanted her couch to herself. She wanted to sleep.

"Move." She said before shoving Ichigo off of the couch and laying down.

"What the hell?" the orange haired vice-captain asked as he looked up at Matsumoto from his new place on the floor.

"Matsumoto-Fukutaicho wanted to sleep and you were in the way." Naruto said with a smirk before walking to the door. "I'll just head back by myself and tell Kuchiki-Taicho that you're ditching."

"You wouldn't." Ichigo said meaning that Naruto would not just leave out the front door where Sai was to be sweeping.

"Yeah…" Naruto said placing a hand on the door, "I would." He said opening to look at Sai who was sweeping with his back to the door. The artist ninja glanced around to look at Naruto. Naruto stared at Sai with a blank expression for a moment until he smiled slightly and left toward his Division. "Sorry Sai." He said to himself but Sai heard him.

"For what?" Sai asked loudly.

"I can't tell you." Naruto said stopping before turning back to look at the Uzuki. "We'll be able to talk when I feel better about what's been going on. I would have been all over you if certain stuff didn't happen. I still love you, but I love other people too. I'm not worth fighting over. I think that you and Sasuke and being pretty stupid to want to fight over me, but hell, you can live how you want, but there's no guarantee I'll be there." Naruto said sadly. He felt like he was ripping himself apart from the inside out. "I'll see you around, Sai." Naruto said quickly turning to leave when he saw that the black haired Shinigami was about to speak. He was not ready to talk to Sai anymore then he now was. If Sai could see Naruto's face at that moment he would see tears slowly slipping down the blonde's face.

"Hey." Ichigo said putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder after quickly catching up," you going to be okay?"

"I don't know." Naruto said taking a breath. "I hope so."

"Meh, you'll be fine if you're acting like that." Ichigo said patting Naruto hard on the back. "Come on, it's about the time Kenpachi goes running around and I don't want to be caught out here if he runs by."

"Right." Naruto smiled before wiping his face and starting to run with Ichigo beside him.

--

**(Ichigo POV)**

**(-Eight Hours Later-)**

I would have told someone to shove it up their ass if they would have told me that the brat, Namikaze Naruto, the third of the Sixth Division, and the guy who is both cockier and quicker to shut up then me, was going to go from loud mouth that talks shit about me when he's bored, to quiet and to himself because he's depressed. The words depressed and Naruto don't mix in my mind. I've never seen the brat like this before. I know right now he's smiling and talking like everything is all cool, but I know he's still hurting. That would be why that bastard Byakuya has Naruto watching me run up and down the Sixth Division room with a wet rag in my hands pushing it along to clean the floor.

Yeah, the Kuchiki actually got me to clean the floor. Only because he used a pity card though; he told me if I didn't clean the floors today he was going to make the brat do it and I don't want that kid doing anything like this today only because it's my fault he's all depressed. I was about half way done with the floor when Byakuya came in to check on us.

"I see you're actually doing it." Byakuya said with a very hard to hear hint of amusement in his voice. It took everything I had not to throw the dirty rag in his face. "Not a very good job though."

"At least I'm doing it." I said not feeling like adding an insult to the sentence which would have added more cleaning to my growing list.

Byakuya must have noticed that I did not insult him because he glanced at Naruto before looking back to me. "No insult?"

"I don't feel like having to clean even more today, I'll get back to insulting you tomorrow or next month." I said going back to running back and forth.

"I see." Byakuya said folding his arms and watching me. I took it he was not going to be leaving the room. That meant he was done with his paperwork and wanted something he thought was entertaining to watch.

"Come on Ichigo I know you can go faster then that!" Naruto laughed. If he wasn't having a bad day I seriously would have thrown the rag at his face.

"I'm not moving any faster then this." I said with a growl.

"We're going to be here all night if you don't pick up the pace." Naruto groaned.

"What you need me to walk you home?" I asked annoyed.

"Fine…" I heard the brat said before I heard two pairs of feet moving then the door opening and shutting. I looked up to see that both Byakuya and Naruto were gone. I sat on my knees for a moment staring at where the brat had been before I sighed and started running again but faster. I wanted to head home.

--

**(Naruto POV)**

'_Stupid Ichigo!' _I thought to myself after Kuchiki-Taicho and I went our separate ways. I was so bugged that he would not hurry up so we could just go home. In truth I did want him to walk me home but I was trying to be as me as possible so I did what I would have done and left.

The sun had set on Seireitei about fifteen minutes ago so the sun set line was still colored like it was on fire. That's one of the things I really like about Seireitei, the sun sets are still the same. It even snows and rains and has overcast and all of that other stuff that happens in the real world. Its funny how there are two worlds that come to this Soul Society. I really like it here; at least there was in fact some kind of life after death, even if this one is a little more stressful then the last. I feel worse for the people coming from Ichigo's side of the fence though because they really aren't that suited to be fighters people from my world sure as hell are.

As I continued to walk, deep in my thoughts about the differences between people from my world and from Ichigo's, I never noticed the large white light coming at me from above. It did not even need to break the barrier around Seireitei. It was almost like it was allowed past. By the time I noticed it, it was right in my face. I jumped back quickly to avoid getting smashed by whatever it was. I landed atop the building to my right and looked down at the creator that had white smoke flowing from it. I placed a hand on my Zanpakutou and watched ready for anything.

"That was a bit of a loud impact." said a voice that I knew but could not place, "And why were we so bright? I bet more then half of the Shinigami here saw us!" that voice was driving me up the wall because I knew this person but I could not remember who it was.

"It won't matter." Another voice intruded. Damn! I'm going to kill something! It was another voice I knew but this one I really hated. It sounded snake like and evil. Wait…Snake like? No way.

"Don't move!" I shouted jumping down to be level with the intruders. "You are not permitted within the walls of Seireitei, calmly surrender so you may go under proper producers for questioning then judgment." I said the way that Kuchiki-Taicho had taught me.

"Naruto!?" The female voice shouted as a random wind blew and the smoke was blown away revealing two people clad in white hakama each sporting a hole in different places.

"Sakura-chan…and…Orochimaru?" Naruto said slowly stunned beyond words. Sakura had a hole through her stomach that showed from her half hakama top and tight black pants. Orochimaru had a hole through his left shoulder and each had a Zanpakutou strapped to their left side.

"You're a Shinigami!? That sucks." Sakura said holding an index finger to her lip. "That means that we have to fight one another."

"You…You died?" I questioned. I was way too surprised; how could Sakura be dead?

"Well yeah, that's the only way I could be an Arrancar." At those words I was brought to attention what I was. I was a Shinigami. It was my job to kill Hollows and Arrancar were Hollows.

"Leave this place." I said glaring at the two. I was supposed to kill them not tell them to leave. I guess I was telling them to leave because one of them was Sakura-chan.

"We can't do that…" Orochimaru said as he placed a hand on his Zanpakutou, "We're here to kill the Soutaichou…not that you'll live to tell anyone." After that the snake like ninja vanished and I turned quickly to block his sword that tried to attack me from behind. I felt another attack coming from behind and slid down letting one foot fall from below me so Sakura and Orochimaru would clash blades for a moment before I squatted with both feet on the ground and slashed my sword in a circle trying to cut them both. Of course that did not work. They were Arrancar and I was nothing but a third seat in the Sixth Division.

You know I should stop reminding myself about things like this. I laughed as I jumped up high and began to mutter words for a Kidou spell. I was fighting because of exactly what I was. Not anyone could make it to third in the Sixth. I was strong and I was not going to let anyone, not even Sakura-chan, stop me from being who I was now.

"You're a lot stronger then when we were alive Naruto." Sakura said with a light laugh. "I'm impressed." She was behind me in moments. I blocked again then pushed back and attacked cutting her shirt across the stomach.

"I told you to leave," I said holding my sheath with one hand at my side and my sword with my right pointing at the two standing feet away from me, "You chose to attack me instead. I cannot allow you to kill the Soutaichou, so I'll be killing you two now before you can do any more damage."

"So bold for a mere Shinigami." Orochimaru said. "You don't stand a chance, bring your captain here and we might have a chat, although we can't allow you to alert anyone about our presence."

"Who are you taking orders from?" I questioned but got nothing but a light laugh from Orochimaru and a giggle from Sakura-chan. Hollows really are evil, even Sakura-chan is evil. "Fine, have it your way." I said preparing to use my shikai. "Howl like the Wind, Kukitsune! I released my Zanpakutou making it change its form the top of the blade was a dark blue like color that was see through and the lower sharper blade was curved up and down a few times. I was told by a few people that my sword looked like it had wind flowing through it. Ironic because my element was wind back before I died, I guess it followed me to my death.

((_A/N: I used the Ku version of nine so Naruto's Zanpakutou means Ninth Fox. He'll complain about that following him around eventually.))_

"Oh you can perform shikai," Sakura said highly impressed, "good for you…too bad you'll never get Bankai." Somehow I felt like she should know nothing about the releases that a Zanpakutou goes through. I was becoming frustrated, Sakura-chan was mocking me and Orochimaru was laughing.

"I'll ask one more time, who are you taking orders from?" I asked, I had intention of letting them go but I had to figure out who let them in here first.

"The number five is a dangerous number to deal with." Sakura said before I felt a hot sensation from in front of me. My body trembled as my vision began to quickly fade. I could hardly believe what had just happened. Sakura-chan had placed a deep cut along my front and from the feeling it went from my right shoulder to my left hip. I heard the splash of my blood hitting the ground shortly before I began to fall. I could see the sky was now dotted with a few stars. Was this it? Was I going to die again? What happens when we die again?

I'm scared.

--

This was just a bit longer then the other chapters but come on. I'm leaving you with a cliffhanger. It turns out that my rant from earlier about not going to AX was a dud because I did go. I had a lot of fun like all of the other times I go. I saw the ORESKABAND in concert and watched Kingdom Hearts and Naruto cosplayers gang up on the Zelda cosplayers. It was funny. Well see you next chapter.

_Yoi Ichinichi o_.

--Kaiku--


	5. OVA: Years Before

_Author Time:_

_Singing One night and one more time/ Thanks for the memories even though they weren't so great/ "He tastes like you only sweeter" hums I really like this song; it might make a good song fiction too. If you don't know it it's Fall Out Boy: Thnks fr th Mmrs. sings again One night, yeah, and one more time/ Thanks for the memories, thanks for the memories/ "He, he tastes like you only sweeter." goes back to humming. This is going to make fun battle music to listen to. So yeah. Is Naruto dead? Or is he alive!? Dun-dun-dun I bet the suspense is killing you. It's making me feel great though. Which is why I will act like an anime or manga and give you a __**FILLER CHAPTER!**__ XD I never would have thought that my cliché little Bleach Naruto fan fiction could get this much love. I guess I just know how to type now. Yay! Well here's a chapter for you. Let's start with something different I know you all want Naruto but you can't have him yet…Besides…I want to do something to make you all suffer for the 25+ alerts and 17+ reviews. I like reviews more then I like seeing my alert count go up. Although I guess both of them going up is a good thing. Meh, read now!_

--

**Chapter Four.Five: **

**Wind, Moon, and Flower; A Complete Understanding  
**

"_**Live every day like your hair was on fire."**_

**(Third POV)**

It was a calm and peaceful day in Seireitei. Birds were singing, the air was clean, and all was as it should be. Kuchiki Byakuya stepped out of his house wearing just his hakama with a cup of coffee in his hand. He looked toward the rising sun and gave a content kind of sigh as he sipped his coffee. He would only be allowed to enjoy his peace for so long as Kurosaki Ichigo woke up in the room he was given by the captain. Byakuya had made sure that the new vice-captain had a room that was poor, which was hard to find in the Kuchiki house, and close to his so the Sixth Squad captain could knock Ichigo for a loop if the orange haired teen made too much noise.

Byakuya was still angry that the other members of the Gotei Thirteen decided all of this without him there to object. They were all truly evil. Especially the new Third Squad Captain, Namikaze Minato; how dare that man ask Byakuya to take his son into his squad? Better yet why?

"Yo, Byakuya." Ichigo said as he cleaned his ear out and walked toward his captain, "where do I get food in this place?"

"Ask a maid." Byakuya said holding his coffee to his mouth to avoid looking at Ichigo.

"You're the owner aren't you? Why not show some hospitality? Are you still sore that I beat you all those years ago?" Ichigo questioned looking at Byakuya with a smile on his face.

Byakuya said nothing as he kept the cup to his lips hoping that Ichigo would leave. Ichigo stared at the captain for a few more minutes before he shrugged then left to look for someone that could help him get something to eat. Byakuya continued to stare at the sun until he was sure Ichigo was gone then pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. "Stared for too long." He murmured lowly.

--

"Put it up your ass, prick!" Naruto shouted at one of the students who was calling him a loser. "You just watch, I'll have a better hold of this reiatsu thing then you ever will!"

"Sure you will, in a million years!" the student laughed slapping his thigh. "If you're so sure, Mr. "I'm a Captain's Son" prove it! Put your money where your big mouth is."

"Why should I?" Naruto questioned glaring.

"Because it just proves I'm right if you don't." the student smirked.

"I should call you Kiba." Naruto said to himself getting a confused look from the student. "Alright, what exactly do you want to see me do?"

"Byakurai," the student said, "It's a pretty basic Kidou. If you can do it I'll let up a bit but if you can use Kakushitsuijaku I'll stop it completely."

"Alright lets go to one of the training areas and I'll show you I can do them both! Get a few people for me to locate." Naruto said. When the student agreed he called over a few people and the group set off. '_What have I done? I can't do the( __Summoning of the Tracking Sparrows) K__akushitsuijaku. No Naruto don't think like that! Just remember how you used to use chakra and focus on it. Remember what Sakura-chan said about controlling inner forces.' _Naruto told himself as the group showed up at the area.

"Alright, you guys hide." The student said to his friends. The five people nodded their heads before running to different places. "Okay Namikaze, lets see what you can do."

"Fine!" Naruto shouted. "What's my target for Byakurai?"

"That rock." The student pointed at a large boulder before them.

"Alright! Watch this!" Naruto said as he cleared his mind and tried to sort out what was reiatsu. He soon found it then remembered the how it was to be invoked. "_Byakurai!" _Naruto shouted pointing two fingers at the rock before a white lightening shot from his fingers and took the rock out.

"Alright…" the student said, "I'm slightly impressed, lets see Kakushitsuijaku." He smirked

"Yeah, yeah, stand back." Naruto said focusing again before kneeling down and drawing a circle on the ground. He then cut the into circle into four parts with a specific character in each. "_Minami no shinzō, kita no hitomi, nishi no yubisaki, higashi no kibisu, kaze mochite tsudoi ame haraite chire!_ (Heart of the south, eye of the north, finger of the west, foot of the east, arrive with the wind and depart with the rain!) The incantation animated the circle, causing various numbers to appear within until the specific set was found. Seven dots appeared in different areas on the circle, Naruto and the student being in the middle and the rest of the dots being the hiding friends.

"Kiri! Come out." The student said staring at the circle. As the Shinigami student Kiri came back one of the circles moved and soon Kiri came back from the direction he had been indicated from being in. "Holy…" the student said as even Naruto had been stunned. "You really are good."

"I really am…" Naruto said as the rest of the students came back.

"My name is Chiaki Yuiji." He said holding a hand out to Naruto.

"Namikaze Naruto." Naruto smiled taking the hand in his.

--

"At least I know how it feels to be on the popular end of the poll." Naruto smiled as he walked along heading home. "I was actually surprised I could use that spell." Naruto said to himself looking up into the sky. He stared up for a few moments before he felt someone coming from behind him. He looked back to see no one there. He grew a little suspicious so he spread out his sensing range to ten kilometers. He not long after that he felt someone coming at him from behind him again and quickly turned and jumped back as a white and black dress figure appeared before him inches from where he was standing before. "Ku…Kuchiki-Taicho…" Naruto said looking at the Sixth Division captain.

"I suppose you're not useless." Byakuya said looking at Naruto. "You do show some promise." He spoke more to himself then to Naruto. Byakuya then turned to walk away without a word to Naruto. The blonde stared after the captain for a moment before he decided he wanted to talk to the man a bit more. Although the Namikaze was sure he would get barely even a "yes" or a "no" question out of him.

"Can I ask you a few questions Taicho?" Naruto asked jogging to catch up with his soon to be captain.

"If you keep it as a few." Byakuya said not surprised that the smaller boy had followed him.

"Okay, well…to start…Do people from my living world always just come here? I heard in class that Shinigami send souls here but I had never even heard of one until I cam here. Is it something special about my world?" Naruto asked trying to be humble. He wanted to be a little different from his old living self.

"I can't be accurate with you but I can tell you that not all of your world's souls come here. Every fifteen years or so some of the souls from your world come here, and some of the souls from our side of the living go there." Byakuya said slightly confusing himself but not showing it as usual. He had heard about it for the first time when Minato knocked on his door to say hello.

"Hmm…" Naruto sounded glaring at the ground before shaking his head then looking back to Byakuya. "How many Shinigami, new Shinigami students can use Kakushitsuijaku?"

"Not many…" Byakuya said before glancing at Naruto who was again looking at the floor. "I have a question for you." Byakuya said stopping in front of the teen. "What do you want to do as a Shinigami?"

"What do I want to do?" Naruto repeated making sure he heard right. "Hmm, I guess…protect what becomes important to me. I don't know much about this world yet but I'm sure once I know more I'll set even higher goals until they can't go any higher. Back where I come from I wanted to be Hokage, which is the village leader in my old village. I wanted it then though to show everyone that I was worth more then what they thought I was." Naruto paused putting on a stupid grin. "No one liked me much."

Byakuya looked at Naruto for a few moments before turning around. "Do you have anymore questions?"

"Not that come to mind right now," Naruto said scratching the back of his head, "Would it be too much to ask you later if they come up?"

"Why not ask your father?" Byakuya questioned.

"I…I don't really believe him. I don't believe he's my dad. He's the reason my life was hell for so long, and the reason I survived so much but also the reason I died." Naruto told the captain. "Well I'm sorry to have bothered you so much. I'll be heading home now."

"Tomorrow…" Byakuya said before Naruto could dash off. "I want to talk to you some more. Same time, same place."

Naruto was quiet for a long time before he smiled softly. "Sure thing Taicho!"

"I'll send your vice-captain tomorrow morning to talk with you. It's best that you are familiar with who you'll be taking orders from before you actually join." Byakuya said.

"Forgive me for saying this but you really don't seem the type to want to learn about anyone." Naruto said.

"I'm not," Byakuya said, "I guess you just sparked my interest. Good night." The captain said as he began to walk away.

" G'night!" Naruto called before he began to jog home. The Namikaze felt better about where he was going now. He now no longer felt like he would be all alone and his captain did not scare him half to death. Naruto felt much better about everything now.

--

"So you're the kid Byakuya wanted me to talk to?" a voice said behind Naruto. The blonde looked around at Ichigo not surprised that he was there, he had long since felt that Ichigo was coming, he was just surprised that it was Ichigo.

"You're my vice-captain!?" Naruto said stunned. "But…when you were in my house you said that you had just died!"

"So?" Ichigo said. "I've been doing this kind of thing a lot longer then you." Ichigo said as a student with black hair ran past them in a hurry. Naruto glanced over for a second his eyes being drawn to the person. For a moment Naruto thought it was Sai or Sasuke but shook his head and made eye contact with Ichigo again.

"How?" Naruto questioned.

"I don't want to get into detail with you right now, if you really want to know we have the rest of eternity to learn about it." Ichigo said waving his hand around with a yawn.

"Have you ever heard the expression 'Live everyday like your hair is on fire'?" Naruto questioned getting a raised eyebrow from Ichigo.

"No…But have you ever thought about the fact that we're **not **alive." Ichigo said cleaning out his right ear and flicking any invisible wax to the right.

"We may not be alive but I sure as hell feel like I am." Naruto said staring at Ichigo with a look like he was annoyed and could not believe what he was hearing. "It's called emotions and feeling."

"Whatever." Ichigo said. He had taken a very cynical look at things since he died.

"How did you die?" Naruto questioned as the two of them began to walk.

"I was doing my job as a Substitute Shinigami. I'm not exactly sure when but at some point while I was out my body was stolen. When I got back Hitsugaya and Renji were there to tell me that I was dead." Ichigo said looking off to the side a little sadly. "They side my body was found cut clean in half. They still don't know what did it. So excuse me if I don't seem all that thrilled about being here, much less then being under the command of some asshole that I've beaten before… What about you? How did you die?"

"I used to harbor a demon inside me, this weird organization was after it and when they extracted the demon I died. I'm not sure why though, probably a shock from losing so much charka." Naruto said confusing Ichigo as to what the hell charka was.

"We come from different worlds don't we?" Ichigo asked looking down at Naruto.

"Yeah." Naruto said glancing up at Ichigo.

"Cool." Ichigo looked back to the hall before him. "I guess Byakuya wanted to talk to you to, I don't know, get me out of his hair, or maybe because you and I can relate somehow or something. Or maybe he's just lost his mind."

"Is he really, like, quiet and carries himself like he's all cool and stuff?" Naruto questioned.

"Yeah…why?" Ichigo asked.

"I used to know someone like that…He was my age though. How old are you?" Naruto inquired.

"Nineteen." Ichigo said. "What about you?"

"Sixteen." After Naruto spoke the two walked for a little while in silence neither of them had anything to say. At this point they were walking around for the sake of walking with no real destination. "What do you want to do as a Shinigami?" Naruto voiced the question that Byakuya asked him last night.

"Huh?" Ichigo questioned looking at Naruto. The blonde did not repeat the question though so Ichigo shrugged and put his hands on his hips. "I guess…What I normally do as a Shinigami; protect what's important to me."

"What's important…" Naruto repeated. "We do have something in common."

"Well then I guess that's it then huh?" Ichigo smiled. "Well Naruto, I guess we'll be spending more time together after you get out of here huh?"

"Yeah." Naruto laughed.

--

**(Naruto POV)**

After that day I made a habit of handing with Ichigo during the day and talking with Kuchiki-Taicho for twenty or so minutes after school. Eventually Ichigo and I learned more about each other and because we're more alike then some would realize we started to argue and hang out more and more. Ichigo and I acted like brothers and I slowly came to accept that Minato was really my old man. During the time I spent hanging out and talking to different Shinigami I never realized that Sasuke was there in the classes with me, nor did I realize how much I missed everyone that was alive.

There is life in death. That phrase actually means something to me now. It means to me that I am alive, even if I am dead.

--

**(-End Chapter Four.Five-)**

Eat my filler chapter!! HAHAH! This is punishment for my review count going down in the last chapter. I had six on chapter three, and three on chapter four. That's mean to me so I will be mean to you. I hope this encourages you all to review more. I like reviews, even if they are one worded or whatever. Anyway. I'll go type chapter five now.

_Yoi ichinichi yo._

_--Kaiku--_


	6. Chapter Five

_Author Time: _

…

_You know…_

_I don't feel like talking right now. You can just go and find out if Naruto really died or not. (You're dumb if you actually believe he died though. He's, like, one of my mains, DUH!)_

--

**Chapter Five: **

**The Real Danger Starts in Death**

"_**If you are tough you don't live longer, if you are weak don't die faster."**_

**(Sasuke POV)**

No one would tell me what the fuck was going on.

Everyone was running around in a rush jabbering about Ryouka or traitors attacking someone from the Sixth Division. I tried to find Kurosaki-Fukutaicho and Naruto but I had no luck. I was worried that Naruto or Kurosaki-Fukutaicho was attacked. I could not even ask the Sixth Squad captain what happened because he was gone too, but I heard it was because he was tending to his attacked member.

"What the hell?" I said out loud as I sat in the Third Division under Namikaze-Taicho's orders. I wanted to know what the hell was going on but again, no one would tell me.

"I heard it was Kurosaki-Fukutaicho." Hikari said lightly pushing a finger to her pink lips.

"No," Akari said shaking her head, "Didn't you see the look on Namikaze-Taicho's face? It was Naru-chan."

"What do you two know?" I asked standing up quickly.

"We know that it was one of those two because those are the only names flying around." Hikari said looking at me. I glared for a moment before I turned to try and leave but Namikaze-Taicho got in the way.

"Where are you going Sasuke-kun?" Namikaze-Taicho asked me as I clutched my fist tightly.

"To the Fourth Division to see who was hurt." I said coolly but got a head shake from Taicho.

"It was Naruto." When those words processed in my mind I tried to brush past Taicho but was stopped. "You cannot, Unohana-Taicho will not permit anyone from any other Division's in. Only Sixth Division of the fifth seat or higher is allow to enter. She won't even let me in."

"Taicho." Hikari and Akari said as they walked over to him and placed a hand on each shoulder. "It's okay Naru-chan is tough," Hikari said with a soft smile as Akari picked up, "That's right! He's a tough kid!"

"Yeah…" Taicho said walking to his desk and sitting down. I looked at him before I went and sat back in the seat I had been occupying. If Taicho, Naruto's father, wasn't allowed to see him there was no way in hell I would be allowed in.

"Fuck." Was all I could say as I stared at the hilt of my Zanpakutou. This sucked.

'_Naruto…You better be alright.' _

--

**(Ichigo POV)**

This cannot be happening. I'm standing her looking at the brat bleeding all over the place from a cut that they can't seem to close. Byakuya is here too watching. I might be tempted to think he likes Naruto a bit, but of course I'm a little crazy.

"Has he said anything?" Byakuya questioned after Unohana came out of the barrier that they had set up for sanitation reasons.

"When he was first brought in he said something about Fifth Division and a name, Sakura." Unohana-Taicho said as she looked at Byakuya.

"Sakura? Are you sure it was a name?" I asked.

"He associated it with "-chan" so I am assuming it is a name." Unohana told the two of us.

"A connection?" Byakuya questioned me.

"How the hell should I know?" I said as I looked at Naruto his face twisted in pain. "I wish I knew who did this to him so I could level his ass." I said my thoughts aloud before I nodded and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Byakuya asked me before I left out of the door.

"To find one of the kids that was Naruto's friends before he came here. I know of two of them." I said pausing and looking back, "They've got to know something about that name."

"Fine." Byakuya said turning back to Naruto and watching as they finally began to close the cut. I nodded before I left. Which one do I ask? Sai or Sasuke?

--

I could have sworn I would be looking by myself until Toushiro got on my case. He wanted to know what was going on. I told him and now he's looking for Sai or Sasuke too. It seems Sai vanished this morning so he did not know where one of his own subordinates was at. We were walking quickly to the Third Division the quiet and slow pace pissing me off. "I'm going faster." I said before I used Shunpo and reached the Division doors in five or six steps with Toushiro right behind me. I opened the door to look in the room and spotted four people. My first concern would have been Uchiha if I didn't see the way Namikaze stared at me.

"Naruto will be fine, they closed the wound," I said before turning my attention to Sasuke, "What do you know about someone named Sakura?"

"Sakura?" Sasuke repeated the name, "She was a teammate to Naruto and me back when we were kids." Sasuke told me.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Yeah, she wasn't that important to what happened in our lives. Sure she fought along side Naruto when they were looking for me but nothing more then that." Sasuke said as he looked at me with serious eyes. "What's going on?"

"Unohana-Taicho said that Naruto was muttering something about Fifth Division and that girl when he was first brought in." Hitsugaya said repeating what I had told him. "We were hoping you would have some useful information."

"Maybe Naruto is just rambling on about incoherent things." I said as I turned to leave but a Hell Butterfly appeared in my face. I held out a finger and listened to the report it was making and repeated what I heard, "Attention all Taicho and Fukutaicho's, two Arrancar have been spotted within Seireitei the first attacked Shinigami, Namikaze Naruto has informed us that they are after the Soutaichou's life. All Taicho's are to report to the Meeting Chamber, all Fukutaicho are to remain outside of the Meeting Chamber doors, all officers seating from third to seventh are to protect their respective Divisions from attack, all other Shinigami are to search for the Arrancar to report where they currently are, Fifth Squad Taicho and Fukutaicho are to report to the cell bay and calmly wait for the Arrancar threat to pass for they are under suspicion of betrayal. Everyone report to your posts immediately." I finished the report and stared at the Butterfly as it left. That was a really long report.

"We'd better go Kurosaki-kun." Namikaze-Taicho said as he stood up.

"Right." I said nodding my head.

"I don't want to wait here! What about Naruto?" Sasuke hissed as he stood up and stood before me and the other two captains. "I want to see him!"

"This is not the time to let emotions get in the way of duty." Toushiro said stepping forward a bit. Namikaze-Taicho did not seem to comprehend what was happening before him.

"Like you could understand what I'm talking about!" Sasuke snapped at Toushiro casing the short captain to become angry and cause a temperature drop in the room.

"I do, and if you don't shut up and learn your place here I'll send you to the Fourth Division but you'll be in worse shape then Naruto is." Toushiro growled before I stepped between the two.

"Calm down both of you." I said putting holding my hands out between them. "This is really not the time for this kind of shit, Uchiha, stay here and protect your Division as you are ordered, after this blows over we can continue this argument. Until then you need to learn to take orders!" I shouted at Sasuke. "After we leave you had better stay here and if I find out that you left your post…not even Namikaze-Taicho can stop me from knocking you down a few notches."

Sasuke glared at me before looking to his captain who gave him a cold stare then spoke. "Sasuke-kun, remain here." Namikaze-Taicho told Sasuke. Sasuke looked at his captain in disbelief before glaring at the floor as we passed by. "Protect this place." The captain of the Third Division said before shutting the door behind us.

--

**(Naruto POV)**

I could hardly remember why I was in the Fourth Division when I woke up. All I heard were people shouting about Arrancar. Arrancar…That's right!

I sat up quickly and regretted it just as fast as I slumped back into my bed. It was painful to move too much. I looked around slowly seeing I was in a closed off room and people outside the door were running back and fourth. "What's going on…?" I said out loud as I slowly sat up this time. I looked at myself carefully noting the bandages running from my hips up my arms from my elbows, and around my shoulders then wrapping up my neck a short way before stopping. I was impressed I had so many bandages on. Sakura did a bigger number on me then Sasuke did. It sucks.

I wanted to know what was going on outside, but I had a feeling it would be a bad idea to leave. Unohana-Taicho is scary when you do something that you shouldn't when you're injured. I don't feel like dieing.

"One of the Tenth Squad members is demanding to see Namikaze-kun." A voice said outside of my door. "What should I do?"

"Let me see him!" Sai's voice shouted. "If those Arrancar went after him once what is to stop them from doing it again!?"

"Refrain from shouting in my Division." Unohana-Taicho said in her calm voice. I stared at the door where I could see Unohana's silhouette. I shivered outwardly; I didn't want to see Sai. I looked around and found an open window. I stared at it for a moment before I forced my aching body to stand, grabbed my sword, and made my way over to the window. I glanced back one more time before jumping out. I landed painfully outside of the Fourth Division. The cut on my body burned unbelievably before I forced myself to stand and then began to use a slow series of Shunpo hoping to get away before they noticed I was gone.

I must have been a good ways away from the Fourth Division before I finally stopped and leaned on the wall trying to breathe. The pain from my wound felt like I was on fire. "I can't see Sai…" I said taking deep breaths.

"You're still alive!? You're just as resilient as you were when we were living." Sakura's voice reached my ears making me freeze and causing my blood to curl. The danger level was a whole lot higher now, I was injured and the invading Arrancar are standing before me with smug looks. '_Someone save me….'_ I thought as I pushed myself to the wall harder wishing to just melt into it. I was safer back in the Fourth Division but no, I didn't want to face Sai so I was now about to die _**again **_because I did not want to deal with what I should have in the first place. I may have slept with Toushiro but that wasn't really my problem…I think…I think my real problem is…

I still love Sasuke.

--

**(Third POV)**

Sasuke sat in the Third Division staring at the wall in spite. Hikari had gone to look for the Arrancar with special orders from Minato and Akari was on the other side of the room looking out of the window with her left hand on her sword. I stared at the wall for a while before Akari spoke.

"Sasuke-kun…" The girl said getting my irritated attention. "Something…Something is going to happen to Naru-chan…" she said looking to me with worry filled eyes. "Go and look for him, I'll take the heat from Hitsugaya-Taicho, and the others, please…I wouldn't be able to stand seeing Taicho sad if Naru-chan were to die."

"Are you sure about this?" Sasuke questioned standing already deciding that he was going to leave.

"I have this feeling," Akari said gripping the hakama cloth over her heart," he's in danger right now…"

"I understand," Sasuke said striding across the room then opening the door quickly," I'll find him and protect him." The Uchiha said as he stepped out and shut the door behind him. After the door was shut Sasuke used Shunpo and vanished to over one-hundred feet away. '_What have you gotten yourself into __this __time Naruto?' _

--

"It's no fun if you can't fight Naruto!" Sakura called as Naruto jogged around the corner tears threatening to come out from the pain the wound on his chest was causing him. "Stop running so you can just die." Sakura was the only one chasing him. Orochimaru had said it was a waste of time and went to go and attack the Soutaichou.

"Sakura-can please don't do this." Naruto whispered to himself looking to the floor. A flash of white entered his vision and he looked up to meet with Sakura's smiling face. "Sakura-cha—." He was cut off when her fist connected with his stomach sending him flying back into a wall destroying it and reopening the cut.

"Sorry Naruto, you **are **a Shinigami and I **am **an Arrancar, it's just the way it is." Sakura smiled as she walked over to Naruto and pulled him up by his ripped and opening hakama. "I'll make it quick." She said as she began to gather light as the tip of her fingers getting ready to fire a Cero. She was about to fire it, her face had become completely psychotic, when a red bladed sword collided with her side causing her to drop Naruto and go flying into another wall as Cero was released uncontrolled into the sky sending out something almost like a flare telling everyone where she was. Sakura sat up quickly swearing to kill whoever it was that had pushed her aside but paused slightly as she went to stand. "Sasuke-kun…"

"So that's what Naruto was talking about when he was talking about you." Sasuke said as he held Naruto to his left side while pointing his sword at Sakura with his right hand. "For some reason I'm really not surprised, when I left, you were nothing but a selfish bitch, I guess you reap what you sow."

"I'll just kill you both and be on my way." Sakura said as she went to draw her sword. "I'll do to Naruto what you couldn't and then do it to you too. I'll make you watch him die."

"You're threats mean nothing to me Sakura…" Sasuke said with a cold glare as the Sharingan appeared in his black eyes. "I'll kill you first."

"Sharingan…you shouldn't be able to use that." Sakura said to herself as she stared at the red eyes. "Jutsu and Kekkei genkai from our world vanish when we come here. How can you use that?"

"Who knows? I can tell you I don't care though." Sasuke said looking at Naruto before glaring back at Sakura as he kneeled to the floor slowly to place Naruto down softly before standing at full facing Sakura ready to fight. "Come on…Arrancar."

"My pleasure!" Sakura shouted as she charged at Sasuke who used Shunpo to move away from Naruto and met blades with her more then half way sending sparks into the morning air. "You're not going to win, in this life I'm stronger then you and Naruto combined." She hissed with an evil smile.

"It doesn't matter, if you hadn't learned this from Naruto then you never will," Sasuke said his eyes becoming more defined; "Giving up is the real loss." Sasuke said pushing back the pick haired female Arrancar surprising her.

"So you've learned to be as foolish as Naruto, and I used to think you were cool, I guess I was wrong." Sakura smirked as she stood straight. "I'll kill you now." She spread her feet apart before she held her sword extended at her side. "Rip them apart, Flordesangre!"

_((A/N: I was trying to make the name Blood Flower so that's what I was trying to make it mean. I bet it looks weird to some.))_

Sakura's Zanpakutou burst into six large petals that took different forms on her back as her hands became three long, thin, sharp swords. "Let's see you stop me now."

"Fan the flame, Kajimaru!" Sasuke called as his Zanpakutou glowed red and took a new form. The blade was long and silver, nothing much different from what it looked like before except the hilt had five spikes sticking outward toward the tip of the blade, the tsuka (handle) of the blade though was strange, the very end was shaped like a large red and black fan much like the Uchiha family symbol. "Let's see if you can survive my flame."

"Bring it." Sakura smiled before vanishing and reappearing behind the Uchiha. Sasuke though was ready and blocked her without turning holding his Zanpakutou by the tsuka with his right hand and pushed the blade with his left keeping anything from touching his back. Sakura smiled as she used one hand to push Sasuke and the other to try and cut him. Sasuke though noticed this and jumped high flipping over in the air before slashing a orange cut in the air then turning his sword and fanning the cut causing it to turn into flames and shoot at Sakura at an unbelievable speed.

The orange fire hit her directly and burned for a few seconds after Sasuke landed on the top of one of the buildings. Sakura jumped out of the flames not long after her breathing a bit labored. "So you're still pretty weak in my opinion." Sasuke said making Sakura made.

"You'll pay for that remark." Sakura hissed leaving an after image which Sasuke did not realize until Sakura was right behind him and the image flickered. He cursed as he tried to dodge the attack but could not do it fully and his right arm was cut deep. "How will you fight me with a bad arm, hmm?" Sakura questioned.

Sasuke said nothing as he glared at her as the feeling in his arm was almost unbearable. "This isn't even an issue." Sasuke said gripping the tsuka tighter as he glared at Sakura. "The only issue I'm having is if I should really kill you, I mean, Naruto would be pretty upset."

"So?" Sakura questioned. "When have Naruto's feelings ever stopped you from doing what you want?"

"That's exactly what I am trying to recover." Sasuke said staring at Sakura with his red eyes. "I want Naruto to trust me again, I don't want to lose to Sai more then I already have."

"Oh I get it." Sakura smiled as she folded her arms carefully. "You want Naruto to love you like he did before you beat the hell out of him and left."

"That's true," Sasuke said his eyes fixed on Sakura," but even if I can't, I'll still be there to try and at least make up for what I've done." With that said Sasuke took the initiative and attacked Sakura from the front. "Let's get this over with."

"Agreed." Sakura nodded blocking his Zanpakutou then jumping over him and tried to attack from behind again, Sasuke though, turned half way and blocked the assault with his blade then pushed her weapons aside and thrust his weapon into her chest. It was difficult to get the blade to pierce the iron skin but he managed it then heated up before detaching the fan from the tsuka.

"Good-bye, Sakura." Sasuke said fanning the orange light that began to glow within Sakura. She was quickly set aflame, and as Sasuke pulled his Zanpakutou out she began to scream loudly. Sasuke watched her until in a white flash of light she was gone. Sasuke stared at the place she had been for a long time before he looked at the scorch marks on the ground. "She's not dead yet." He knew it was the truth but she was not in Soul Society any longer. Sakura most likely returned to Hueco Mundo to try and recover.

Sasuke looked at Naruto before sheathing his Zanpakutou then walking over to pick him up. He had been unconscious when Sasuke put him down the first time but now he was slightly awake and staring at the obliterated wall to his right. Sasuke pulled Naruto to a sitting position before picking him up bridal style. No words were exchanged as the Uchiha began to walk toward the Fourth Division. The quiet was killing Naruto so he made a sound as if he were going to talk but Sasuke beat him to it. "You're still an idiot…" Sasuke said not looking at Naruto, keeping his eyes on the road before him. Naruto on the other hand made an angry face and was about to retort something when Sasuke continued, "You could have gotten killed." The tone Sasuke used was loving and concerned and this caused Naruto to stare up at the Uchiha with wide and slightly confused eyes.

Sasuke's Sharingan had long since faded away and now his coal black eyes were their natural color yet again. Naruto looked up into those eyes for a moment before he hugged Sasuke the best he could in his current condition. "I'm sorry," Naruto muttered into Sasuke's wounded arm, "I didn't mean to make you worry."

"Dobe." Was all Sasuke could say as he approached the Fourth Division rather quickly. More time had passed faster then Naruto had realized and soon he was facing Unohana who looked happy but one could tell she was very angry.

"Let's get you two checked up." She smiled the evil aura almost pulsing from behind her. "And Namikaze-kun, if you leave like that again, I'll have you put in confinement."

"Sorry…" Naruto said as he swallowed a lump of fear that gathered in his throat.

"Come along now." Unohana said the angry aura still there but much less.

"The nicer they appear the more evil they are." Sasuke said lowly getting a nod from Naruto before he followed the captain.

--

**(-With Ichigo-)**

'_What the hell was that Cero? Are they trying to give away their position? These Arrancar are pretty dumb.' _Ichigo thought. He wanted to go to the area he saw the Cero shoot from.

"Has anything else happened?" Byakuya's voice broke into Ichigo's thoughts as the Sixth Division captain came out of the captains meeting room.

"Not since the Cero." Ichigo told his captain. "It's kind of boring you know. I'd rather be running around looking for them then standing here waiting for them." Ichigo sighed before he realized a Hell Butterfly that was coming toward them. Ichigo held out his hand and let the butterfly hand on his index finger. "Attention all captains, and vice-captains, one of the two Arrancar has been eliminated by Third Division Sixth Seat Uchiha Sasuke. Detail on the location of the second Arrancar is unknown, it is suspected to still be heading toward the Soutaichou. Keep alert and be prepared for anything." Ichigo finished the report and let the Hell Butterfly fly away.

"I see." Byakuya said nodding his head slightly before turning to walk back inside.

"I thought I told that little bastard to stay in his Division. I'm going to let him have it when this is over…but…how the hell could he take out an Arrancar?" Ichigo questioned to himself but noticed that the other Vice-captains were too looking ahead or at Ichigo with the same questioning glances.

"So Sasuke-kun is still as strong as he was when he was when he was living." A snake like voice said over Ichigo. Before the orange haired vice-captain could turn around a long slimy tongue wrapped around his neck and pulled him off of the ground choking him as he was dangled from atop the meeting building. "Or maybe Sakura was just weak."

"Alert! Arrancar attack! Kurosaki Ichigo captured." Matsumoto shouted loudly alerting the captains inside. The last part of the alert only lasted true for a few seconds when Ichigo was thrown at Kira with a force that send both of the lighter haired Shinigami flying away from their post and off of the higher ledge. The vice-captains had long since drawn their swords when the deafening crash of the two vice-captains filled the air.

"You think you simpletons can stop me?" Orochimaru asked drawing his Zanpakutou and looking down at the group of Shinigami. "Send out your captains."

"You won't make it past me!" Ichigo's voice called before a large amount of reiatsu pressure covered the area. The orange haired teen then came flying up from where he had fallen, reiatsu wrapping around him as the loose bandage acting as a tail for Zangetsu began to wrap around his arm as he rose above Orochimaru. "BANKAI!" he shouted loudly as he glared tensely at the intruding Arrancar. Seconds later in a bright flash of white Ichigo dawned his newly formed Tensa Zangetsu. "You're dead!" Ichigo called as he slammed his black daitou with Orochimaru's silver tachi.

((_A/N: I have a Wiki page open while I type for sword and other kind of Japanese culture reference. You can look this stuff up if you really want to know about it. And an early note because I want to say this now, Orochi is a pedophile in so many wrong ways!))_

"You really think that you can beat me? You didn't even realize I was there when I slipped my tongue around your neck." Orochimaru said seductively while licking his lips with a smirk.

Ichigo cringed on the inside when he heard the tone of voice that Orochimaru was using, but the Kurosaki shook it off and pushed down before he was forced back up and landed just behind Orochimaru as the doors to the Soutaichou's chambers opened letting Minato, Byakuya, and Hitsugaya come out to view what was happening. They had little to no time to look up before another clash of metal resounded through the air. "You won't make it out of this place alive." The orange haired male hissed as he pushed on the other's blade hard.

"We'll see about that." Orochimaru smiled as the blades shook from being forced together. "You really don't stand a chance." Orochimaru smiled before he jumped back and held his sword out to his right. "Slither, Serpiente!"

_((A/N: Everyone knows about the Arrancar all having Zanpakutou with Spanish names right?))_

"It doesn't matter if you release that or not." Ichigo said as he glared at the man who was one of the ones responsible for the condition Naruto was in. Ichigo had long since considered Naruto as a brother he never had and he right now had an extreme case of big brother complex. The vice-captain was ready to kick this Orochimaru's ass to make sure someone paid for the blood that had been spilt. "I've beaten your kind before."

"So you _are _Kurosaki Ichigo…I was told about you." Orochimaru said as he waved a serpent tail in front of him before two snake headed heads hissed and rose to look at Ichigo. "I was told to at the very least kill you."

"So then I guess I don't need to worry about you running after the Soutaichou. I'll be glad to show you that the Gotei Thirteen are not to be messed with." Ichigo smirked as he began to gather his energy then quickly pulled his hand across his face quickly dawning his Hollow mask.

"Vizard." Orochimaru said with a flat face. "Why would you fight us? We're not that different from one another."

"You're wrong." Ichigo said in a distorted voice, barely sounding like his own, "You and I are nothing alike. You're a heartless monster who doesn't care about anything, all you do is fabricate feelings and try to seem human, and I actually have feelings and don't need to pretend. I am a Vizard but I am a Shinigami first and foremost so prepare to die."

"How long do you think the Shinigami will allow you to stay here after showing that form?" Orochimaru asked the words cutting through the heavy air.

"Doesn't matter to me, a few years ago when I was alive it would have but right now it doesn't." Ichigo said before he vanished and aimed to cut Orochimaru's tail off. However the tail flicked Ichigo back causing him to slide a few feet before he again dashed at the snakelike Arrancar.

As the battle began the vice-captains and three captains looked on with mild surprise. They all knew about Ichigo's half Hollow form but for some it was the first time they have seen it. It was terrifying in a way because no one really knew what was going to happen.

An explosion resulted from a Cero missing Ichigo and nailing the side of the Shrine of Penitence with a force so hard that the ground shook. A small chuck was missing from the wall after the smoke cleared and that was when it occurred to many at one time.

This was not a battle to be taken lightly. Orochimaru had power and it was intent on accomplishing his mission.

--

**(-Chapter Five End-)**

First off I would like to thank PirateCaptainBo, itachi-sama15, and wdsnoop for being constant reviewers. The rest of you readers could take a leaf from their books. Anyway, well I'm back in school so I'll be kind of slow with things. I'm not to sure when the next chapter will be up but I'm thinking of that going up when I am at least half through the seventh chapter or after I get some more reviews. Thanks for reading everyone and thanks for all of the support, I would so love more reviews instead of the 25+ people adding this to the alert list. Review people review! I know you're reading just send me a one word review if you must but review! It makes me feel better.

_Yoi ichinichi yo. _

--Kaiku--


	7. Chapter Six

Author Time:

_Author Time:_

_For a very long time now I've been refusing to do anything with Desire but I figure that my laptop, which the story is on, is not going to get fixed for a long time. Thus I haven't updated in a long time. I have had this chapter written (kind of) but not finished. Well, I'll just have to give in and get around to typing. With fifty-nine people on the alert list I feel I need to get this moving again. If I could get a review from everyone of those people I would be so thrilled! Though, I know it will __**never **__happen. Anyway, enjoy._

--

**Chapter Six:**** Honor & Consequence**

"_**Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences."**_

**(Third PoV)**

Minato looked up with a look of melancholy not commonly seen on the face of the Third Division captain. For some reason seeing Orochimaru is Seireitei made him realize that his world and this world were not that far apart. Also that life in this world was no different from life in the old world. '_Shinigami are just as fragile as humans, we simply have more ways of defending ourselves. Swords, reiatsu, spells, we have more options of defense and slightly more resilient bodies.' _Minato thought to himself as he watched Ichigo lock blades with Orochimaru yet again.

Minato felt that he was watching a show for his own amusement but gaining none from it. He felt he should be fighting Orochimaru, because the snakelike Arrancar was from his world. Orochimaru was his teacher's teammate once a long time ago.

--

"Come on you bastard, is that the best you've got?" Ichigo questioned as he breathed heavily. The orange haired vice-captain was ready for Orochimaru's next attack standing defensive with his black daito held steady.

"I suppose that reasoning with you has failed. I told the Master it would never work. No bother, I'll just reserve to the second option and kill you." Orochimaru spoke as he leaned back. He was going in for an attack but had stop quickly to raise a scaly armored hand to block Minato's blade. "What is this?"

"Kurosaki-kun, stand down, I will take care of this." Minato said his voice heavy with earnestness. His eyes, unlike their normal warm blue, were ice cold and his reiatsu, which was usually not felt or bubbly when felt, was like a cold wind blowing all around. The temperature for at least a mile dropped severely and even caused Hitsugaya to shiver. "You'll face me now, Orochimaru-san."

"Ah yes, the father who damned his own son; Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato." Orochimaru smiled as he kept his arm and Minato's sword in the same place with equal force. "I'm surprised you're actually fighting me."

"You think you can get under my skin so easily? You should know the best that when I am serious I'm not swayed by mere sentences." Minato said as he pushed Orochimaru back more. The Arrancar quickly jumped back landing on the very farthest edge of the building. "Kurosaki-kun, move down, _**now**_."

"I had this under control!" Ichigo argued but a sudden blast of cold wind forced him to fall back. Ichigo sat up to look at Minato with a surprised look before he nodded and released his bankai before jumping down to stand between Hitsugaya and Byakuya. "He's pretty scary right now."

"I had no idea he had any control over ice." Hitsugaya muttered his breath showing in the cold caused by Minato.

"Wind and ice." Byakuya stated. "It's rare to control two elements."

"I've heard his shikai deals with wind, and his bankai adds ice." Rangiku spoke.

"Makes you wonder if his son will go the same way. He already has a shikai of wind." Shuhei supposed.

"That could happen." Hitsugaya nodded his head in agreement.

--

"I really am stunned that you would have enough daring to face me yourself." Orochimaru laughed as he raised his arms to prepare for any attack that Minato might launch.

"I'm not daring in anyway, you should see me face my Fukutaicho when she's angry. I can't even face Naruto when he gets mad at me. My only reason for fighting is to clean up the mess that followed from my world." Minato answered to the paler man. "Your death will be swift so you might as well just give into the inevitable and die."

"You think you're better then me? Why would you think something like that, because you were selected as Hokage in life? Ha, don't make me laugh! You are far more pathetic then I thought!" Orochimaru laughed trying to stand steady. "You threw your own son to the fox."

"You know nothing about what I did. Wishing that kind of…wishing that kind of horrendous thing on anyone else's child would have been…would have been far crueler then my own. If the process had not killed me I would have been there with my son at al times, but I died. For years I feared that he would hate me for what I did but he forgave me, and now I will protect him and everyone else who I hold dear in this world."

"You talk as if you have the right to speak like that; as if you've somehow regained your honor for the wrong you inflicted on a newly born child." Orochimaru returned trying his hardest to throw Minato off so he could catch him with low defense.

"Honor isn't about making the right choices. It's about dealing with the consequences." Minato stated his eyes growing colder before he held his blade fully extended in his right hand. "Shatter the Wind, Kushiruto!" Minato called as he turned his katana quickly causing a small whirlwind to form up the shaft. After it reached the top the wish suddenly dispersed and left a newly formed weapon in the older blonde Namikaze's hand. The tsuka and guard stayed the same but the blade part of the weapon was now more machine like with creases every six or so inches.  
Come on, snake."

"With the greatest pleasure." Orochimaru smiled before he darted at the blonde man standing before him. Once he reached the unmoving Minato he was met with a yellow flash before he was sent flying back over the roof's edge. "What the…?" the snake man asked as he stood looking up at Minato. "Ninjutsu?"

"Is that all you're coming with me at?" Minato asked as he jumped down to level with Orochimaru.

"Not at all." Orochimaru smiled before he lifted his arms. Minato prepared for an attack directed at him but the Arrancar instead stabbed himself. "Meet my true form here, Namikaze Minato."

"What!?" Minato called before black fog covered his vision.

--

"What the hell?" Ichigo said aloud as he looked around at the new darkness that settled in over the vision of all of the Shinigami in the area.

"True form?" Shuhei said trying to see but failing miserably.

"This means that Arrancar have gained another form?" Rangiku questioned as she felt around for someone and grabbed a hold of an unknown person's upper garment.

"That could be it, we won't know until the fog clears, or someone dies." Hitsugaya said, his voice heavy with graveness. "Stay close everyone."

"Good luck getting _**Kuchiki-**__Taicho _to follow along with that." Ichigo mouthed off taking advantage of the zero visibility; however his head and a wooden kendo stick met seconds after the comment finished. "Son of a BITCH, how the hell did you know where I was!?"

"You don't shut up, or suppress your reiatsu." Byakuya said calmly as his kendo sword stayed where it was until each person in the group had a hold of someone else's kosode or haori.

"Namikaze-Taicho!? Are you alright!?" Hitsugaya called out into the black fog. Their ears were met with nothing before the sound of metal emitted into the air.

"What is that snake thing doing?" Shuhei voiced glaring in the direction that the noise came from.

--

"**You will die yet again Yondaime-baka.**" Orochimaru voiced in Minato's ear before jumping away as Minato swung his blade to cut him.

"What the hell is this!? A cheep shot!?" Minato yelled.

"**No, this is flat out cheating.**" Orochimaru laughed before Minato felt something go through the left side of the stomach. "I'll never forgive you." Naruto's voice suddenly said behind Minato. The weapon was still in Minato's side slowly turning and going in deeper. The blonde captain looked down to see a blue swirling crystal like sword in his side much like his son's Zanpakutou.

"Naruto…?" Minato questioned as he touched the blade slowly.

"That's right, _dad. _Ha! You really think I would forgive you for putting the Kyuubi inside me? You and mom ditched me and you seriously thought I forgave you. I was waiting for this moment all along!" Naruto's voice rang clearly for Minato but for everyone else listening it was Orochimaru's.

"Namikaze-Taicho! Don't listen it's a trick!" Ichigo shouted loudly pissed because the voice was now all around them throwing them off.

"Namikaze-Taicho!" Rangiku, Shuhei, Kira, and Hitsugaya shouted to try and snap Minato out of the daze he was now in.

"I'll only ever forgive you if you die." Naruto told Minato. The tone used was almost unbearable for Minato he felt like he was falling apart on the inside.

"MINATO!" Byakuya shouted the loudest. "Naruto forgave you long ago! Do you really think that he would take back what he said!?"

"Byaku…ya…" Minato said slowly. His hand slowly gripped the blade in his gut so as not to let it move before he turned quickly cutting whatever was behind him. The fog was then blasted away by a sudden jolt of ice cold wind so that all was clear. Minato's breath was labored but he wore a smile; what stood before him now was a headless and bleeding Orochimaru. "Don't ever try to use that on me again, ass hole."

"Holy shit." Ichigo stammered letting his jaw drop open. "He cut his head off."

"Alright! That's our Namikaze-Taicho!" Kira shouted as he jabbed the air with his fist.

Byakuya stayed quiet just observing Minato before he walked slowly over to the Third Division captain. "You really are bothersome." Byakuya muttered as Minato swayed then fell. The Sixth captain, however, caught him before he hit the ground.

"You really believe that Naruto forgave me?" Minato murmured in his near unconscious state.

Byakuya stared at Minato long and hard before taking a breath and shaking his head. "If he didn't do you not think he would have paid you back for what you did long ago?"

"Good point…" Minato chuckled. "Byakuya…sorry for being a pain."

"Idiot." Byakuya shook his head before picking up the blonde. "Not a word." The ebony haired man hissed at Ichigo before he left to take Minato to the Fourth Division.

_((A/N: When Byakuya said idiot right then he used the Tokyo term "aho" which is the equivalent to retard.))_

"I wasn't gonna say anything." Ichigo said simply before he followed his captain without another word.

"What the hell was that?" Shuhei asked as he kicked Orochimaru's lifeless arm.

"He mimicked an actual Zanpakutou, how?" Rangiku asked.

"Maybe this is part of the Arrancar's new powers." Kira shrugged.

"Naruto's Zanpakutou, how could he mimic this?" Hitsugaya questioned kneeling to the blade. He barely had tapped it before it shattered like glass.

--

**(Next Morning)**

Naruto sat wrapped in bandages next to a sleeping Minato who did not look as bad as his son but was indeed in worse condition. The cut from the Arrancar was not healing as it should have when reiatsu was injected to heal.

"Come on dad," Naruto said as he touched his fathers hand, "Pull through this. If you die on me again I'll never ever forgive you for it." Naruto felt tears coming as he took a shaky breath trying to calm his nerves. Sasuke had been standing near the door outside for a long time now. He was just listening to what was going on inside the room. If Minato did wake up soon he felt it would have to be a moment between the two as father and son.

"Father…" Sasuke whispered to himself as he closed his eyes and thought about his parents that he had not seen in ages now.

"Is Naruto-kun in there?" a voice suddenly intruded Sasuke's thoughts.

The dark haired Uchiha looked up with a glare meeting gazes with Sai. "Maybe he is, regardless, he's spending time with his father. Why don't you go sweep Squad Ten's floors again?"

"You're determined to make it so we don't get along after death as well aren't you?" Sai questioned as he smiled with one of his fake smiles.

"Of course not. I just don't like you right now." Sasuke told the other ebony haired teen. You keep trying to get into the middle of whatever Naruto is doing and it's really bugging me. Things that happened in life have nothing to do with where we are now. A few things may still hurt but it's not like it'll keep us apart. You were just a substitute for me, but I'm here now so you're not needed."

"A substitute was I?" Sai said in a dangerous tone. "I highly doubt that. I picked up where you left a shattered heart and pieced it back together." Sai's normally calm face turned into a death glare that only enemies had ever seen. "And I also doubt that things in life don't matter now. If you were in the same position as Naruto-kun would you be able to forgive yourself?"

Sasuke stared at Sai for a long time before he pushed off of the wall to stand even ground with the Uzuki. "No, but I would be willing to give me a second chance. I have one more question for you before I decide weather I'm going to kick your ass or not." Sasuke told Sai. Sai clenched a fist to ready himself to defend. "I know where I was, I had no idea Naruto was in any danger, nor did I even know what Akatsuki's plan was, so…Where the hell were you when he obviously needed you the most?"

Sai could say nothing. He had asked himself the same question over and over again. He could never explain to himself or to anyone where he was or what he was doing. He had always hoped that no one would ask that question. Sai looked to the floor with sad eyes before he shook his head.

"That's what I thought." Sasuke muttered before he brought his right fist back and landed a blow to Sai's cheek.

The Tenth Squad member was sent flying to the floor from the force of the blow. Sai had sworn he was going to get hit more but when no other throws were dealt he looked at Sasuke who had gone back to leaning on the wall. The Uchiha was not even facing Sai but the artist knew that there was a look of disgust on Sasuke's face.

"Why don't you figure out where you were before you talk to Naruto?" Sasuke said without turning to face Sai. "Get out of here."

Sai slowly stood up, letting Sasuke's words echo in the artist's mind. "You're right, I'll concede and consider where I was and why I could not help him, but you will let me talk to him when I have my answer."

"Whatever." Sasuke shrugged. The Uchiha did not turn to look as he heard Sai walk away. "I don't believe that you'll ever find your answer."

--

_**(First PoV: Sai)**_

'_Where was I? Why can't I remember? Was I even trying to save him? What happened at that time? What was I doing?' _I asked myself as I walked the long clean halls of the Fourth Division looking for the exit.

I can't remember where I was when I heard Naruto had been captured by Akatsuki. I can't even remember if I was trying to save him from them. I tell myself that I was but there's no proof. Yamato, Kakashi, and Sakura, are the only three that would know if I was there, but none of them are here to ask. It's stupid that I don't know it myself. Why is it that I don't know?

"Uzuki!" called a voice that I knew and then didn't. I turned to look at my captain Hitsugaya Toushiro. "Where the hell where you?"

"Where was I?" I repeated realizing that I didn't know. "I don't know."

"You probably got lost in the maze." Hitsugaya-Taicho assumed. "At any rate, head back to HQ. I'll be there shortly. Can you find your way back?"

"I shouldn't have a problem." I told him with a bow before he continued to walk in the direction that I had just come from. "Why don't I know where I was?"

Questions are just piling up one by one and I don't think I can answer them. "What am I going to do?"

--

**(Third PoV: Naruto & Minato)**

Naruto's head was turned to the door when Minato finally opened his eyes. The first thought in Minato's mind was that he must have been out for a while. '_Why else would Naruto be sitting here?' _Minato asked himself as breathed deeply.

"What the hell is Sasuke doing out there?" Naruto muttered before he shook his head ten turned back to Minato. "Dad you're awake!" the young Namikaze said ecstatically.

"How long have I been out?" Minato asked.

"About a day." Naruto smiled.

"You should be resting too then." Minato cringed as he tried to sit up.

"Don't move the cut isn't closed!" Naruto spoke quickly. "They don't know why they can't shut it."

"So that's it huh?" Minato questioned out loud.

Naruto stared at Minato for a few minutes before he sighed and opened his mouth to speak. "Kuchiki-Taicho said that Orochimaru took on my appearance to you." At these words Minato froze unsure of what was going to come next. "He said that I was saying that I didn't forgive you for sealing the Kyuubi in me. He told me that you looked like you had died on the inside." Naruto paused before he put his hand on his father's. "I want you to know that I _**have **_forgiven you. You're my father and I can understand what kind of decision you had to make. You would have been seen as a coward if you used someone else's child so you used your own. I never once hated you for sealing that thing within me. I can't count the number of times its chakra saved my life.

"I don't want you to think that I hate you for what you did. I never have, never will. I know having it killed me in the end but I was able to save a lot of people with the power it gave me, so in a way you saved a lot of people too. I don't think I could have ever been a better Hokage then you." Naruto smiled as let a tear fall from his eyes.

"Naruto…" Minato murmured as he looked at his son with a shocked expression. "Is that really what you believe?" Minato's face slowly changed to a smile when Naruto nodded. "Thank you Naruto…" Minato said as he forced himself up and hugged his son. This was the first time he was able to do anything like this. Minato felt his heart melt with joy as he was finally able to embrace his son, as he was finally able to hear Naruto's feelings. "Thank you."

"Dad." Naruto said as he hugged his father back.

--

"I don't understand how you managed you reopen the entire wound by just sitting here." One of the Fourth Squad members hissed as he and two others tried to close the cut once again. The reiatsu had just began to circulate as Naruto, who was now standing between Sasuke and Hitsugaya, gave a cheesy grin trying to cover up the fact he was part of it. "This is strange." The Squad member said as he gave the cut before him a hard stare.

"Is something wrong?" Naruto asked quickly stepping a little closer. Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder to keep him from getting too close.

"The wound is closing normally." The Shinigami told the young Namikaze getting confused looks from Hitsugaya, Naruto, and Sasuke.

"You mean it's not rejecting the reiatsu treatment like before?" Hitsugaya asked eyeing the healers.

"Precisely."

"That makes no sense." The short captain muttered as he placed a curled index finger under his chin. "I'm going to my Squad now, I'll come by to talk later."

"What do you think is happening, Hitsugaya-Taicho?" Sasuke asked trying to act like he should toward to the captain.

"I can't be sure yet but I have a theory." Hitsugaya said folding his arms. "Did that man attack you Naruto?"

"Yes, but he didn't cut me, Sakura-chan took care of that." Naruto nodded his head as he turned to look at Toushiro.

"Did you release your Zanpakutou in front of him?"

"Maybe, I don't remember." The blonde shrugged as he glanced back.

"Hmm," Hitsugaya sighed before he spoke again, "I think the wound not closing was caused by an inner conflict that Namikaze-Taicho might have felt from what that Arrancar said while in your form. I'm also guessing that he could mimic any Zanpakutou he'd seen and that was why he was able to copy you and your weapon, but it's only a theory like I said." Hitsugaya let his arms fall to his side before turning for the door. "I need to look into it more before I draw any conclusions. I'll be back later to check on Namikaze-Taicho."

"Thanks Toushiro." Naruto smiled as he gave the teen like captain a thumbs up. Toushiro nodded with a return smile before he slid the door open and left. "Well at least things aren't weird between us."

"Did I miss something?" Sasuke questioned with a raise eyebrow.

Naruto paused as he watched the door a bit longer. "Let's go for a walk. They should be done when we come back. I heard there's a nice garden here."

"Naruto."

"I know, I'll tell you, just not here." Naruto smiled before he led the way out of the room with Sasuke behind him. As they walked no words were exchanged and they only spoke to ask where the garden was.

The two arrived in to quiet garden with the still climbing sun shining down on them. Naruto picked up a stone from the ground before he tossed it in the water which caused the coy fish to swim away quickly. He took a breath as he watched the water ripple slowly fade away. "Have you ever gone out drinking?"

"No." Sasuke answered folding his arms.

"I do it every now and then with Ichigo and Toushiro." Naruto chuckled. "I never really remember what I do or say when I'm drunk. Ichigo says that Toushiro and I are really funny when we're drunk though. Normally I go home after I'm done drinking, or I should say Ichigo drags me home."

"So?"

"Well, this last time Ichigo decided that we should all just stay at Toushiro's place. He was tired and we looked like we were having fun. So he left to go and tell my dad where I was." Naruto paused for a long time after that. "I kind of remember him telling us he would be back, it's vague but I can still sort of hear it."

"Okay."

"Well, after he left I recall telling Toushiro that he looked girly." Naruto laughed to himself. "We kind of threw that back and forth for a while before things took a weird turn and I woke up…"

"Woke up?" Sasuke questioned with an extremely confused face.

Naruto turned to look at Sasuke with a soft smile. In his heart Naruto was still unsure but he knew he could not leave it as it was now. "I slept with him Sasuke."

"You…what?" Sasuke's voice dropped drastically as his hands fell to his sides.

Naruto took a shaky breath before looking to the cherry blossom three. "I slept with Toushiro."

Sasuke felt his world just crash before he regained his posture. "Was Hitsugaya-Taicho your first?" Naruto looked up at Sasuke with sad eyes as if he knew why the Uchiha was asking.

The blonde shook his head before he told the ebony haired teen. "Sai was."

Sasuke clenched his fist so tightly he cut into his palms. "I thought so." He hissed through clenched teeth.

"You weren't there Sasuke." Naruto said snapping Sasuke's attention to Naruto's eyes. "Sai was, Toushiro was, you…you didn't come back, you didn't look for me."

Sasuke felt his heart drop as he resting his hands. "You're right." The Uchiha nodded as he took a deep breath and exhaled. "I don't think I could ever do enough to make up for what I did to you back then but," he stepped toward Naruto before he hugged the blonde tightly. "I'll work to the end of time to try and regain what was lost."

"Sasuke…" a stunned Naruto exhaled as he felt his body being pressed to Sasuke's.

"Watch me Naruto." Sasuke whispered in Naruto's ear as he pressed his hands onto Naruto's back wishing for the Namikaze to return the embrace as a friend if anything at all.

"Okay…" Naruto said as he hugged Sasuke, "I'll watch you, but you better hurry."

--

_**(Sasuke PoV)**_

I'll never forgive that bastard Sai for talking Naruto from me. I can't really blame him though. He did have the right. I did leave Naruto behind like he was just some kind of doll.

I can't be mad at Hitsugaya-Taicho either. I don't know why but I just can't. I don't really have the right.

The only person I can blame is myself for not being there when I should have been.

Was trying to kill Itachi really the right thing?

--

Holy crap! I actually finished it! Yay! I'm getting a pretty good clue as to what I'm going to be doing now. I love anime and plots with twists and then some. At any rate, I'll catch you later. Blarg.

_Yoi ichinichi yo._

**Akari Kaiku**

**(Kaiku Akari)**


	8. Chapter Seven

_Author Time:_

_Goodness me, I get a lot of reviews begging me for no SaiNaru. It makes me sad on the inside because I really hate Sasuke and I really love Sai. What other Naruto character cracks jokes about penises to the persons face? sigh Maybe I'll just make an OC for Sai so I can kill it then make him act like Sasuke. I've never liked Sasuke he's just always made me angry. Oh well, if anything I can make myself happy by keeping this HitsuNaru. One of my reviewers was saying that I was making Naruto too girly. What I have to say about that is that "I know." I was doing that part on purpose but he should be manning up a little for now. Wants to make Naru-chan Sumo wrestle I've been playing Zelda Twilight Princess lately and I just made Link sumo some Goron and a fat old guy so yeah. At any rate, some pairings that have yet to appear here are ones involving Ichigo really. I'm a fan of IchiHitsu, please don't shoot me, but I am. On my deviantART account I have a lovely colored picture of this pairing that I drew. I also have some art for Desire is Half of Life, like Naruto and Sasuke with their Zanpakutou and shikai. You can find them by going to Kaiyuku., so go and have fun with that. Anyway, On to the next chapter._

--

**Chapter Seven****: Facing the Facts**

_**"A fear faced is fear erased."**_

(Omnipotent PoV)

The soft click of a clock pendulum echoed off of tall white walls. Columns of shadows painted the walls black every twenty or so feet sending a distinct chill into the air as if someone hid in every one of those shadows with fifteen columns on each side of the room. A long table seated for thirty five sat in the middle of the room with enough space between each seat for a giant to sit. The chairs were pure white with no elaborate design but the table compensated for the lack of creativity with an indention of a rose in the center of the table. From the rose sprouted vines with wicked thorns and leaves that did loops and turns each vine ending where a chair sat. Where the indentation of the vine ended there was a hole in the table each with a different size and shape as if pieces were missing.

From the head of the room foot steps could be heard walking toward the long table. A tall figure cloaked in white stepped next to the chair sitting at the head of the table with a white rose trinket in hand. The figure proceeded to place the charm into the hole in front of the chair which matched the shape and depth of the object perfectly. Once the rose was in place the person sat down before gold light filled the vine that connected to the rose. From the shadows more came each brandishing their own symbol as they walked into view. Each figure was cloaked in white just as the one sitting in charge.

"Sit." A deep voice resonated from the figure head. All of the cloaked members took their symbols and placed them in their slots as such, crescent moon, arrow head, heart, diamond, key, keyhole, apple, peach, circle, leaf, kunai, shuriken, tear drop, sword, dice, tulip, daisy, snowflake cylinder, crow, dragon, handgun, wings, feather, four point star, five point star, six point star, seven point star, eight point star, cherry blossom, swirl, delta symbol, and an omega symbol. As each charm was placed in the matching slot and the person sat gold light flowed along the line until it reached the rose. The last hole which was left alone was in the shape of a snake. "You've failed your mission, Sakura." The white figure at the head of the table spoke. "What's more," the voice paused as a sudden gust blew off Sakura's hood, "you left Orochimaru's symbol behind."

"My deepest apologies!" Sakura spoke as she bowed her head lowly to the point where she almost touched the table.

"You will be in charge of re-obtaining that object, Wataru will be assisting you. If you fail to retrieve the symbol you will die."

"Yes, master." Sakura said slowly before drawing her hood back to cover her face.

"Now, report on the enemies movements and defenses." The same person spoke again.

"Understood." Sakura said before she placed her hands on the table. They sat still for a moment before sinking into the white marble. After her hands were fully fused into the marble her vine began to glow brighter. "Seireitei, the central for Shinigami, has a poor defensive barrier though they believe it to be the strongest. The main force that appear are not but underlings far to weak to pay any mind too; however, caution should be exercised nonetheless for some of the underlings have latent abilities not known by either themselves or their captains." As Sakura spoke any light in the room faded and a screen appeared hovering above the center rose. The images on the screen would scroll slowly showing a visual to her words. "The captains in question are of note some controlling two elements or extremely strong in a certain aspect. Underestimating any of them would prove fatal. The vice-captains can also be noted though most of them are not of any special nature. Kurosaki Ichigo, Vizard, and vice-captain of Squad Six." Sakura spoke as she put a picture of Ichigo up on the screen. "Years ago he opposed the Hollow who were under the command on Aizen Sousuke not long after defeating Aizen he was killed by a still unknown enemy."

"An enemy that will prove to be friend when we discover who." The tallest looking figure in the group spoke.

"At any rate, Namikaze Minato, Uzumaki Naruto, Sai, Uchiha Sasuke, and Hatake Kakashi are among a group of ninja from the other world. Uchiha Sasuke has shown signs of an ability that he used as a ninja. Thus there's a strong belief that with time all Ninjutsu can be unlocked and used." As each name was spoken the person that it belonged to appeared. "There is speculation that the Uchiha Clan is also present in the outer part of Seireitei as well as a few other notable ninja from the other world. None of these pose as any threat to our objective. From my own personal relation to many of these said individuals I can foretell an easy victory for our forces." Sakura finished before pulling her hands out of the table.

"None of these Shinigami seem that tough, let's just kill them already!" a wide figure at the far end of the table called pounding his fist on the table.

"Silence!" a female voice called from the right side of the leader. "We will attack when our preparations are complete."

"That's correct. For the time being all of you train yourselves." The leader spoke before he stood. The rest of the table quickly followed lead before each picked up their symbols. "You're all dismissed." The head spoke before all of the figures vanished back into the shadows of the pillars. "This war, the Hollow shall win."

--

"Son of a bitch!" Ichigo's voice rang clear into the warm air. It was now three days since the attack on Seireitei and everything was almost the same. Minato, and Naruto were on medical absence for another day while Minato left Sasuke in charge of the squad until he got back. Byakuya had been making Ichigo clean with the help of a kendo sword and all seemed peaceful.

"Will you stop hitting me with that damn thing already!?" Ichigo questioned loudly as he sat on the floor holding his head tightly.

"Clean the floor properly." Byakuya spoke with a tired voice as he looked off to the side.

"God you piss me off!" Ichigo growled as he picked up the rag he was using and went back to work. As the orange haired teen worked Byakuya watched with surveying eyes.

'_Half Hollow.' _The Sixth Division captain hummed as he carefully watched all of Ichigo's movements. Nothing seemed to be different with the way that the tall lanky teen moved about so Byakuya figured that Ichigo had been half Hollow for a long time now. '_If he has been half for so long now, what will the Soutaichou do about him?' _

"I'm done!" Ichigo chimed from the far end of the dojo with joy.

"Now you can do the main office." Byakuya yawned slightly trying to look at bored as possible.

"Just because you're bored doesn't mean that you have to use me as your entertainment damnit!!" Ichigo shouted as he threw his rag on the ground. He glared for a few seconds before he spotted a Hell Butterfly. He held out his hand and robotically relied the message it carried. "_**Kuchiki-Taicho, we require that you and Kurosaki-Fukutaicho report to the Captain's Meeting Hall immediately.**_" With that said the Butterfly flew off slowly drifting on black delicate wings. "What do they want?"

'_Likely a discussion of what to do with him.'_ Byakuya told himself before he placed his kendo sword against the wall. "We're going."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ichigo waved his hand before he followed his captain out of the Division. It took about ten minutes to walk from the Sixth Division to the Captain's Meeting Hall. The large word doors stood as tall as they did days ago when the Arrancar attacked. "Here again." Ichigo sighed before the doors opened and the two Sixth Division members entered.

"Kurosaki-Fukutaicho, please relinquish your weapon for the time being." The Soutaichou spoke before stepping forward.

"This is about the Hollow thing isn't it?" Ichigo said with a slightly depressed face. He nodded to himself before he took the Zangetsu off of his back and handed it to Chojiro.

"That you know the reason for which you have been called here saves a bit of time." Shigekuni spoke leaning on his wooden cane. "How long have you had this second form?"

"Since before the fight with Aizen in Hueco Mundo." Ichigo answered diligently.

"Kuchiki-Taicho, has he ever exhibited any hostile nature since his coming here after his death?" Shigekuni questioned the captain.

Ichigo looked to Byakuya feeling his doom coming swiftly. '_Byakuya hates me! I'm so dead.' _

"No."

"Eh?" Ichigo sounded looking to Byakuya.

"Not any actions that would be considered aggressive. The only actions that he has displayed are argumentative to say the least; which is understandably part of his personality." Byakuya informed the Soutaichou without batting in eyelash toward Ichigo.

"Do you believe he should be allowed to continue to work as a member of your Squad?" Shigekuni questioned.

"Yes."

"You understand that you will be responsible for controlling his actions as, also that if he should do anything that threatens the Gotei Thirteen you and he will be subjected to execution form this time fourth. Therefore I ask again, do you think he should be allowed to continue service within the Gotei Thirteen?" Shigekuni stressed his words as he looked Byakuya right in the eyes.

"I believe that Kurosaki-Fukutaicho is fully capable to controlling the Hollow part of himself; however, if I am wrong and he loses control or attacks without reason I will exert any actions necessary and accept the punishments set on me by reason that I am his keeper." Byakuya said as he stared back into old tired eyes.

"Alright then." Shigekuni said before nodding to Chojiro who in turn gave Ichigo back his Zanpakutou. "From this day forth Kurosaki Ichigo, until you are believed to be trusted enough you are under the charge of Kuchiki-Taicho, if you should ever do anything that would cause harm to the Gotei Thirteen you and Kuchiki-Taicho will be subject to execution. You are dismissed."

Ichigo missed everything that the Soutaichou had said. He was far too stunned by Byakuya's willingness to take responsibility for the young vice-captain. Ichigo was snapped out of his stupor when Byakuya turned to leave and called for him to come. The orange haired male looked around for a moment before bowing quickly to Shigekuni then jogging after Byakuya. Once the two were far enough from the Captain's Hall Ichigo spoke. "Why did you do that?"

Byakuya said nothing as he continued to walk along the wood path leading to the Sixth Division. "Oi! Why did you take the heat for me!?" Ichigo shouted stepping in front of Byakuya effectively stopping him.

"Because you are my Fukutaicho." Byakuya stated simply. "As you captain I've learned the way that you maneuver and I'm fairly certain I have a grasp on your thought patterns as well. I believe strongly that you just as likely to attack Seireitei without reason as the Soutaichou is; thus, I will take responsibility simply because you are my underling and if I have summarized a fictitious understanding of who you are I deserve to be punished as such."

"Oh…" Ichigo slowly said as he looked at Byakuya. He glanced at the ground with a thoughtful face before looking back with up a lopsided smile. "Thanks, er, Kuchiki-Taicho."

"Don't start acting differently now, I may have to change what I just said." Byakuya said before walking around Ichigo and proceeded to head back to the Sixth Division. Ichigo watched Byakuya walk away with a confused face before his expression changed to a grateful smile.

"Oi Byakuya! Wait up!"

--

Hitsugaya stood at the door step of the Namikaze household with nervous glances to his left and right. He was wondering if he should really be here at the moment. He had been told a day ago that the Namikaze duo had been released home and were ready to go back to work. Hitsugaya had been more then thrilled at the news and decided late last night that he would come over to see how the pair was doing.

"Maybe this was a bad idea." Hitsugaya sighed as he realized this would be the first time he and Naruto were more or less alone since that night that the two had sex.

"Is that you Toushiro?" Naruto's voice questioned from the side yard.

"Ah, Naruto, um, how are you feeling?" Toushiro asked as he faced the blonde who was walking over to him.

"Feeling great, nothing a little rest can't fix up, but man, last night sucked." Naruto groaned as he shook his head.

"What happened?" Toushiro asked before Naruto gestured the ice captain to follow him. The Namikaze lead the white haired teenaged looking captain to the back yard before he took off his geta sandals. Toushiro followed suit taking off his waraji before following the blonde inside.

"I don't want to say it where people might hear. Anyway, I came home yesterday and you might have already known. I thought I was going to be in for a nice quiet night but no. Sai, apparently, lives here. I think he stood at my door for about four hours last night trying to get me to talk to him." Naruto started with an annoyed tone but slowly changed to sad. "I want to talk to him but…"

"You feel guilty?" Toushiro asked feeling a tug on his heart.

"Yeah." Naruto said putting his hand over his heart. "The more the think about it I feel like I've done something wrong. It's just one of those things that you wish you could just forget about."

"Things in life?" Hitsugaya asked.

"Yeah…" Naruto nodded before running his hand through his hair. He took a few steps toward his dresser before he turned suddenly with a concerned look. "I'm so sorry!" Naruto said quickly. "I'm talking about this and I don't even know…I mean to say…ARGH!" he shouted loudly.

"It's fine calm down!" Hitsugaya shook his head as he waved his hands around. "You don't have to worry about me." Outwardly Hitsugaya looked truthful but inwardly he for some reason felt like crying.

"Toushiro don't try to lie to me. I've been with two of the hardest to read people in the world and you think you can fool me?" Naruto shook his head as he walked to Hitsugaya. "I'm sorry that I talked about us doing "that" like it was bad."

Hitsugaya thought about what Naruto was saying to him before he sighed. "You're right; I'm not just tying to lie to you but to myself too." The young captain of ice pinched the bridge of his nose before he looked at Naruto with an unreadable look. "Since that night I've been confused, honestly, I've never felt this way. I don't even know what the hell it is. I'm guessing that this is the feeling people get when they really care about someone else as more then a friend."

"Toushiro…" Naruto started but Hitsugaya stopped him.

"You don't have to return anything and we have more time then anyone could ever hope for. I won't hate you if someone else is who you want. I'll still be around when the sun goes down and when daybreak paints the sky orange." Toushiro smiled before he turned. "Think about yourself."

"Myself." Naruto said to himself as he looked at the floor. "I need to think about what makes me happy."

"Exactly." Toushiro smiled over his shoulder before he walked to the door.

"For the last few years, that's been you and Ichigo. Ichigo is like my brother, and you're…" Naruto paused as Toushiro turned around. "You're more then that. I promised Sasuke I would watch him, and I'm likely to get over things with time so I can talk to Sai again and right now, you're here, right?"

"Yeah."

--

"Hurry up because those guys in black come by again!" hissed a male voice from a dark alley.

Across from the alley was a tall lanky teen with red hair and pupil-less green eyes. His eyes looked like they had heavy black eye liner painted around them; however, the darkness was from what was considered lack of sleep. On his forehead above his left eye was the Japanese kanji, "ai," meaning love. He was dressed in burgundy and tan with a large stone like gourd on his back with a brown cork keeping whatever was inside it from leaking out.

The red head looked back and fourth for a moment before he darted across the open street. After he landed his eyes glanced up to look into a pair of brown eyes. On the other youth's cheeks were red tangled tattoos pointing toward his mouth. He wore a completely black outfit and behind him was a ridiculously large white dog. "We just need to go a little further, can you make it?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" the red head answered the question with a question. "I _**am **_Kazekage here."

"Oh right, I forgot I was talking to Gaara…" the brunette said with an eye roll. "Anyway, we have to hurry. There's not a lot of time before those bastards unleash the Bijuu."

"Kiba!" called a strong male voice quietly from the darkness.

"Neji, about freaking time. Give me some good news." Kiba begged as a tall male dressed in white with long black hair ventured into the shadowy light.

"There hasn't been good news in years," Neji shook his head. "They've just released the Ichibi."

"Shukaku…" Gaara said in barely a whisper.

"The only thing we can do is run. Hiding won't do any good anymore." Neji said as he looked out into the light. "On three, run, and don't stop no matter what."

"What are you going to do Neji?" Kiba questioned with a heavy voice.

"Our mission is to safely extract the Kazekage, now, GO!" Neji said with a smile before he hopped atop a building and preformed a series of difficult hand seals before a large orange light rocketed into the sky. This was a signal for any ninja on the current mission to retreat and that the Kazekage had been found.

"Damn!" Kiba shouted before he led the way out of the alley with Gaara in front of him and Akamaru running ahead of Gaara. Neji glanced back to watch as ninja from Konoha and Suna joined the running group before he faced the incoming threat.

"I wonder, if I'll get to see Naruto after this." Neji asked himself before he quickly pulled out a long scroll and sent thousands of explosive kunai at the Ichibi. After the kunai emptied from the scroll Neji stood still waiting for the smoke to clear though he knew that his weak attack would have not effect on the Bijuu. After about a minute he was about to move when a large clawed hand sped out of the smoke and crushed Neji.

--

"We're almost to the safe zone!" Kiba called from the back. He heard the crash and wanted to look back to see if Neji was able to dodge out of the attack but remembered what he was told. "No stopping!"

"This way!" called someone from their left. Kiba looked to see the tired face of the once feared Uchiha Itachi. The group quickly turned and ran toward the west.

"What are you doing Uchiha? Our forces are waiting that way!" Kiba growled his question.

"Not any longer, Pain sent the Kyuubi on them." Itachi spoke as his eyes stayed forward.

"No…" Tamari's voice shook as she glared at the sandy ground.

"Is this way even safe?" Kiba asked.

"Safer then any other, but I can't make any promises." Itachi spoke as the run began to rise on the group of running ninja.

"What are we going to do from now on? We've got all of the village leaders to safer places but we don't even know where our own Hokage is!" Kiba hissed in annoyance.

"I don't know either, for now we just need to take the Kazekage to the designated safe place. We'll get a message when our forces plan to make a move." Itachi explained as the sunlight shown over the sandy grounds and cast their shadows before them.

Gaara was listening but he felt like he was being a coward running from Akatsuki and leaving his village to be destroyed. He had a choice to leave sooner but as the village leader he waited until the very last minute to ensure that as many of his people as he could save were taken from the village.

"Kazekage-sama," Itachi called gaining the red head's attention.

"Right."

--

"Why is it that my first day back on the job I have to go to _Rukongai_?" Naruto hissed as he walked along with Ichigo.

"Beats me…I thought that Byakuya would let you take it easy but I guess not." Ichigo shrugged as the two walked down the street filled with people. "We're gonna get jumped eventually though."

"Why's that?" Naruto questioned.

"Sad as it is to say, Seireitei doesn't do much to improve things out here so Shinigami are kind of hated. Catch my drift?" Ichigo questioned as he moved his hand in kind of a beckoning motion.

"Yeah," Naruto sighed, "That kind of sucks. If we cared about things out here some more we could really make a difference." The blonde spoke as he looked at a pale teen with long ebony hair. '_That looks familiar.'_ Naruto thought as he squinted to look at the person. All he could see at the moment was the back of the person's head but Naruto felt like he had seen this individual before. '_Where have I seen this guy?' _Naruto wondered as he took a step closer only to run into a large ill-tempered man. "My bad." The blonde said trying to smile as he held a hand up.

"Shinigami filth!" the large man shouted.

"I said MY BAD!" Naruto cried loudly as he crouched down to avoid the attack.

"Naruto!" Ichigo called from farther ahead. He had walked on without knowing that he left Naruto behind. If he were in a clear street he would have been able to make it in time to save Naruto from the large man.

"Shit!" Naruto hissed as he jumped away from the man. The Namikaze had thought about just running off but he had been circled in by a large crowd of Shinigami hating souls. "Come on people! I said I was sorry!"

"Kill him!" many voices called.

"Shinigami don't care about us!" called others.

"He picked the fight, finish him!"

"Come on!" Naruto groaned glancing around before facing the man. "I can't use my sword on him, it's not fair…fine!" Naruto said getting ready for hand to hand combat.

"Naruto!" called a voice other then Ichigo's.

"Who?"

"Stop this! You're all being stupid!" Neji said as he jumped in the center of the crowd and placed himself between Naruto and the man.

"Neji!?" Naruto shouted loudly.

"It's been a long time, Naruto." Neji smiled before he jumped up and kicked the large man in the face sending him flying back into a vendor and scaring the other people. "Maybe we should go elsewhere."

"Who's this guy?" Ichigo asked with a confused face after he was finally able to catch up.

"Hyuuga Neji, he came from where I lived."

* * *

**(Chapter End)**

Yes, that chapter did jump around a lot, but I wanted to set in some plot stuff I'm going to do a whole chapter or more on what is going on in the ninja part of the worlds then some more stuff that equals tons of fun!! Just keep reading and bare with me jumping around. I shouldn't be doing to too much more. ;;

Yoi Ichinichi o.

Akari Kaiku


	9. Chapter Eight

Author Time:

_Author Time:_

_Man you guys __**suck **__at reviewing. Would it kill you to type a few words and humor me? I've been humoring you guys with updates so come one already! Oh well. I can't force you, but it would be nice if you would just send a review. _

_Anyway! __This chapter is going to be a little different then normal. I'll be focusing on the ninja portion of my fan fiction. The way things are going to happen is gonna be kind of sad and I think I'm going to come up with something that will put certain characters in situations that will make you cry! For now enjoy!_

_-+--+-_

**Chapter Eight:**** The Fall**

"_**Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."**_

_(Omnipotent PoV)_

Kiba sat staring out over the vast forest before him from the high cave on the cliff side. The group had stopped to rest there about half way through the day. The group now consisted of, Kiba, Gaara, Tamari, Shikamaru, Hinata, Ino, Kankuro, Itachi, and Shino. Itachi and Kiba were on guard while everyone else was either sleeping or resting without worrying about anything else around them. As Kiba stared out across the green tree tops he began to think about everyone who had been lost during the last five years and how everyone was suffering because of the Akatsuki.

With a frustrated sigh Kiba ran his hand through his hair then took a deep breath trying to calm down. He always felt a burning hatred for the group that started the war happening right now. "Damn." Kiba whispered under his breath.

"There's nothing that can be done." Itachi murmured lowly as his tired eyes scanned to his right toward the forest before glancing at Kiba. "Once they got their hands on the Kyuubi it was all over."

"You're saying that there's no hope for peace?" Kiba asked in a near whisper.

"No, I'm saying that the only peace will be when the last of Konoha descendants are dead." Itachi spoke as he gave a sigh. "Marada is the one pulling the strings behind Akatsuki, and he hates Konoha and its ninjas more then anyone in the world."

"So, if Konoha falls he'll be happy and stop this?" Kiba laughed at the thought.

"Not likely but he'll probably want to organize his own super village after this." Itachi leaned back to put his weight on the stone wall behind him. "No one can oppose him now."

"Can't you do something about the Kyuubi? I thought Sharingan could control that thing." Kiba questioned. "Can't you turn that fox against him?"

"No, I can turn in away if it attacks and he's not there." Itachi paused, "His eyes are stronger then mine." The Uchiha paused as he glared at the floor. "I may have perfected them, but he…He knows how to use them completely." Itachi felt sick just mentioning that his eyes were perfected.

"You killed Sasuke right?" Kiba asked his voice still low.

"No…" Itachi muttered with a heavy voice. "Marada did."

--

"Have you found the other Kage's yet?" an irritated voice questioned from the window of the Kazekage's office.

"The Iwakage has been found and killed according to your order but the Hokage and the Kazekage still are out there." Someone said in the shadows.

"Three of the five villages belong to the Akatsuki, we need the last two." The figure said at the window before turning revealing a masked man, Tobi, Uchiha Marada.

"What should we do?" the man from the shadows, Pain, asked as he walked out of the black.

"Send Shukaku after the Kazekage and his friends. I'm sure my traitorous little relative, Itachi, is with them." Marada spoke with a hint of laughter in his voice. "Then all that will be left is the Hokage."

"Understood."

--

"We still have a long way to go." Itachi spoke as a number of people in the group sat around breathing deeply. They had started moving when the sun went down with hopes that the night would give them cover enough to run away safely. "We'll rest for ten minutes but after that we need to run. We aren't safe here."

"We're not safe anywhere if you hadn't noticed yet, Uchiha." Shikamaru growled. "No one is safe."

"Shikamaru." Ino said with a sad face.

"Running is just putting off what we all know if going to happen." The shadow manipulator said before glaring away from the group. "We should have known how pointless it all was after Naruto died; I knew he was just a loud mouth." Seconds later Shikamaru was pushed into a tree roughly by a very angry Kiba.

"Don't you ever talk about him like that." Kiba hissed with a dangerously low voice as he pressed Shikamaru against the tree.

"Guys stop it!" Ino shouted.

"Don't shout!" Itachi hissed before Hinata made a gasp.

"Shukaku, it's coming this way." She said with a shaky voice as she brought her hands up to her chest.

"We have no time to be fighting! Let's go!" Itachi growled as he walked over to the fighting ninja. "Now is not the time to disagree. You need team work more then ever at this point so put aside any hatred and focus on the matter at hand."

"You're one to talk." Shikamaru snuffed as he shoved Kiba away. The group was quiet for a minute before they started to move out. Shikamaru used his transformation after a while and took on Gaara's appearance. "I'll go this way." He spoke before four clones showed up; three of them transformed into Itachi, Ino, and Hinata before Shikamaru darted off toward the left.

"Idiot!" Kiba wanted to shout but knew it was best not to say a word.

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Hinata asked in a low voice.

Kiba remained quiet as he and the rest leapt from tree branch to tree branch. After a minute he finally spoke with a tired voice. "It's up to him."

--

Kiba lead the group with sharp eyes toward the front. He knew it he looked back he would want to go looking for Shikamaru and bring him back. Kiba had been assigned this mission by the Hokage herself and he wanted to see it through to the end. He knew it his heart that Naruto would have gone head first into battle and would have stopped Shikamaru from leaving but Kiba was not Naruto, Kiba did not have the same will that the blonde Uzumaki had, and Kiba knew that he would never measure up to what Naruto had been. '_It's been like this since I heard.' _Kiba thought to himself as he hopped from one branch to another. '_The moment Sakura told me that Naruto was dead, I felt a shatter on the inside. I'm sure a lot of people did. Despite the fact that he was an idiot he was respected and loved by more people then he realized; better yet, then I realized. The day of his funeral it reminded me of the Sandaime's. So many people were there, and so many people were crying. I never would have guessed that, that many people cared about him or that I would have been one of the ones crying that day.' _

"Watching you all run is very entraining but I'm afraid that Marada-sama will become angry if I wait much longer." A rough voice broke through the forest air and shattered the silence the ninja had been in.

"What the--?" Kiba started but was cut off when kunai shot from every direction trying to impale the people in the group. "Look out!" the brunette called as he and the others dodged around quickly or deflected the knives with their own. "Show yourself you son of a bitch!"

"But if you see us that means you'll die faster, that's no fun." A childish voice called out as the rain of metal stopped. "I know! We can show you a fake "us" so then we can play!"

"Stop screwing around!" Kankuro growled before a smoke bomb went off and two ninja dressed in the Akatsuki cloaks appeared before them.

"I'm Takahiko Izumi, this is my big brother, Koboyashi Isami, and we're from the old whirlpool country. It doesn't exist anymore but we're going to revive it after we help Mara-sama destroy the great five countries." A child with purple hair spoke as he waved his hand at the Konoha and Suna ninja. His big and bright brown eyes gave the impression that he was kind but a sinister aura made skin crawl.

"What the hell, he's a kid." Kankuro spoke as he stared at the two. The other man was probably decades older then the child, he had pitch black hair with strands of gray in random places on his scalp. His tired gray eyes made him look as if he had been sleeping not long before coming into the forest.

"That's not very nice," Izumi huffed as he crossed his arms. The cloak he was wearing puffed up around his shoulders and elbows. "Just because I'm nine doesn't mean you can call me a kid. If you do it again I may not play with you."

"Whirlpool country was gone way before you were even born, what do you know of it?" Gaara asked his eyes on the child.

"Um," Izumi hummed before he looked at Isami, "Not a lot actually, but if Nii-san wants it back then I want it back too! I'll do anything for Nii-san!" the violet haired child finished with a laugh as he raised his hands into the air.

"So the big guy is pulling the strings?" Kiba whispered the question.

"We don't use puppets silly, but you have a doggy don't you? I wish I could have a doggy, I would call him Izami! Get it? It's my name and Nii-san's name combined!" Izumi said with a thrilled tone. "What do you think Nii-san? Can we get a doggy after we put Whirlpool country back?"

"I don't see why not." The man, Isami, finally spoke his voice being the one that had first been made clear. "Izami sounds like a good name too. I'm sure he'll be a good dog."

"Yay!" Izumi shouted gleefully before he did a little jig. "Okay, so first we kill these guys, and the Kazekage, show Mara-sama then we find the Hokage, and kill him right?"

"The Hokage is a woman." Isami said simply.

"I don't like girls." Izumi sighed.

While the two Akatsuki members began to jabber on Kiba moved to grab a kunai to see if he could catch them off guard. He had almost reached it when he suddenly felt hot breath on the back of his neck. His eyes went wide as he slowly turned to look at the older man's tired face.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Izumi gets rather angry when someone attacks me, and the same can be said the other way around." Isami spoke in a soft tone.

"Nii-san! Don't be friendly with him! I'll cry, I swear!" Izumi called from where he had been left.

"Sorry Izumi, but this boy was about to do something very stupid." Kiba felt his heart skip a beat when he had heard the man behind him. Everyone else in the group was at a stand still. Was this a hopeless situation to get out of? Was this the end already? Kiba refused to accept that.

"AKAMARU!" he called before the white dog dashed at the man behind Kiba. Isami leapt high into the air before twisting about and landing sideways on a tree. The air suddenly turned heavy as Kiba put a hand on Akamaru's head.

"I take back what I said, I don't want a doggy. Doggies are like girls, they try to take Nii-san away from me. I don't like it when things try to take Nii-san away from me. I'll kill anything that tries to take Nii-san away from me!" Izumi shouted before he threw his cloak open and kunai came flying out like a thick sheet of black metal. Surprisingly the kunai-sheet had gaps in it where the males of the group stood.

"Hinata, Ino, Tamari move!" Kiba shouted as Akamaru jumped up and landed high in a tree. The girls all quickly jumped away as well but Hinata was too slow and took a kunai to her upper thigh.

"I don't show mercy to things I don't like!" Izumi shouted as the kunai kept coming.

"Where the hell is he getting all of these!?" Ino shouted as he hid behind the trunk of a tree with Hinata before she attempted to heal her friend.

"It has to be some kind of Ninjutsu." Gaara hissed. The Kazekage looked carefully at Izumi waiting for an opening but felt a presence behind him and jumped forward before twisting back to loot at Isami. As Gaara's eyes locked with the other male's he suddenly felt like he was shaking. His vision was blurry and was trembling badly as an invisible force pushed down on Gaara from above. After a few seconds of this crushing feeling Gaara landed heavily on the ground breathing greatly. "What…was that?"

As Gaara began to look up again he heard the quick shifting of dirt in front of him. The red head snapped his head up to look at Kiba who was defending him with Itachi by his side. "There's no way you're getting Gaara." Kiba growled glaring at Isami. He wanted to help Akamaru but his mission to protect the Kazekage came first.

"You really are a child." Isami spoke as he looked at the Inuzuka. "Stand down and you'll live…at least a little longer." Kiba's glare sharpened as he raised a kunai close, readying it to be thrown at anytime. "Uchiha-kun, I don't understand why you left us, because Marada-sama killed your brother? Weren't you supposed to do that yourself anyway?" Itachi responded the same as Kiba raising his kunai to his chest in a tight grip. His black eyes were fixed on Isami before he closed them slowly and reopened them quickly showing an elaborate design that looked similar to a 'biohazard' symbol in the middle his eyes. "I see. Well then, Izumi, I'll play with them. Don't worry."

"Rodger!" Izumi laughed looking at Isami. Tamari took that distracted chance to throw four shuriken at the child. The weapons seemed to have connected with the small boy but he exploded in a smoke cloud. Kiba took Isami's concern as his opportunity and threw his kunai at Isami who too exploded in a cloud.

"Kage Bushin!" Itachi shouted jumping back before grabbing Gaara around the middle then jumping high as two black figures darted out of the blackness of the woods around them. '_"But if you see us that means you'll die faster, that's so fun." "I know! We can show you a fake "us" so then we can play!"_' Itachi remembered hearing Izumi speak before as he let go of Gaara who seemed to still be under a kind of shock he received from what Isami did to him. "Be careful, this won't be easy." Itachi spoke loudly as around him the other ninja stood ready to fight.

"If you come all at once it might actually be fun!" Izumi smiled as he put his arms in the air. "Come on! I wanna play!"

--

The greenery around Shikamaru slowly darkened as the forest became thicker and thicker to where he could only see ten or so feet in front of him. As he slowly hopped alone he thought about what had happened before he decided to go his own way.

"_We're not safe anywhere if you hadn't noticed yet, Uchiha." _

Shikamaru slightly bit the inner part of his cheek as he regretted his own words and what he had said to Kiba. _"No one is safe." _

"We're not." Shikamaru agreed with himself in his aspect.

"_Running is just putting off what we all know if going to happen. We should have known how pointless it all was after even Naruto died; I knew he was just a loud mouth._

"Naruto," Shikamaru whispered as he zoned out and thought about the last exchange that the two had before Naruto vanished and was later found dead.

_--Flash Back--_

"Oi! Shikamaru!" an annoyingly happy voice chimed through the busy streets of Konoha. Shikamaru heard the voice but decided it best not to pay any mind to it. He knew who that owner of that voice was. "Wait up!" the same voice called as Shikamaru kept walking with his hands in his pockets. "I said wait up! Bastard." Naruto said as he grabbed Shikamaru's shoulder and pulled him to look at the blonde.

"Oh Naruto, I didn't hear you." Shikamaru said in a monotone voice.

"That's an obvious lie!" Naruto shouted in annoyance. "Anyway, I've got a mission soon. Wanna grab a bowl of ramen?"

"Why don't you get ready for your mission instead of dicking around?" Shikamaru sighed as Naruto more or less dragged him to Ichiraku's.

"I'm just escorting some noble from Fire Country to Wind Country." Naruto grinned as the two came upon the Ramen Bar. "Hey! One of the usual for me! What abut you Shikamaru, come on I'll be nice and pay."

"Are you sick or something? Maybe you shouldn't go on this mission. I'll tell Hokage-sama." Shikamaru said all in a monotone voice as he turned to walk away but Naruto grabbed the back of his sleeve. Shikamaru was going to retort with a smart sentence to piss Naruto off but he stopped when he saw the blonde's face. "What's up with that face?" he asked as the blonde had a serious yet painful expression. This moved Shikamaru to sit down and order a beef bowl. "What's wrong?"

"I've been doing this lately." Naruto said with a deep breath. "I've been picking out friends I see on the streets before missions and I take them someplace. I don't know really went it started, probably a while after Ero-sennin died." Naruto put on a smile as he accepted the ramen from the old man vendor. He picked up a pair of chopsticks from the cup and broke them apart before he clapped his hands together. "Itadakimasu." He chirped before he ate some ramen. Shikamaru revived his bowl shortly after Naruto and mimicked the blonde. "I think…" Naruto said as he let his chopsticks lay on the edge of his bowl, "I think I'm doing it because I don't want to have any regrets. I probably will even if I try, but if I suddenly die on a mission I want to be on good terms with at least one person. I bet I'm sounding pretty negative right now huh? Just ignore me."

Shikamaru listened to the Uzumaki as he ate then sighed after Naruto finished. "Idiot." He muttered before slightly slapping Naruto on the back of his head. "You're not gonna die, you've got more durability then a cockroach." Shikamaru spoke before he ate more ramen. "Besides, I doubt you really need to treat anyone to anything. We'll all remember you regardless. Some of us for different reasons but all the same; I wouldn't be surprised if you have a funeral grander then Sandaime's." Shikamaru said before he put his chopsticks down on the bowl. "Of course that'll be because you'll have Hokage when you die."

"Shikamaru…" Naruto said in syllables before he grinned. "Thanks."

"No problem. I'll see you when you get back." Shikamaru smirked as he continued to eat his ramen while chatting with Naruto about random things.

_--End Flash back--_

"I should have never bad mouthed him. I'm sorry Naruto." Shikamaru muttered under his breath before he began to focus on the path ahead of him yet again. The minute his eyes came back to focus he heard the tree next to him move. He quickly dodged about to the left before he threw kunai into it. At first nothing happened but then one by one Shikamaru's shadow clones exploded into smoke. "Shit."

"You're not the Kazekage but you'll do for now. I was getting hungry." A creepy voice said from behind Shikamaru.

"**He looks good. Let's eat him now."**The same voice but with a horse tone spoke.

"What the?" Shikamaru managed out before he was sent flying head first into a tree. The impact he made on the wood had so much force behind it that the tree creaked and splintered in the middle of where he was thrown.

"Slow little brat ain't ya?" questioned another voice. Shikamaru shook wildly before smoke exploded from his body and he took on his own form again. He looked up slowly trying to shake off the pain in his back to meet eyes with a blue fish like-man.

"Kisame…" Shikamaru shook.

"Better you then Itachi-san, I'd rather not fight that Sharingan of his. I've seen some people get really messed up after he uses that thing. Like that little brother of his, Sasuke, screamed like a little girl after Itachi got done with him the first time I ever saw the brat." Kisame laughed as he shouldered his sword.

"Kisame-kun, you'd you please move?" the first voice from before asked.

"**We want to eat.**" The second voice said before a man, half-white and half-black with piercing yellow eyes and green hair rose out of the ground. On either side of his head were large green clamps that looked similar to a Venus flytrap. "**He looks good.**"

"Looks good huh? I don't know what you're talking about but whatever." Kisame shrugged before stepping away. "You should know by now brat, you're not going to live to see the next sunrise."

"Doesn't matter to me." Shikamaru said as he pulled himself out of the tree and landed on a branch below him. "I'm ready, so bring it on." As Shikamaru stood ready with a large shuriken in hand he sighed to himself. '_Sorry Asuma-sensei, I couldn't keep my promise.' _Shikamaru watched Zetsu closely waiting for the duel-colored man to make a move. Shikamaru was sure he had his eyes on the man when suddenly from below the green clamps rose from under him.

It felt like slow motion at first. Shikamaru tried to move but he felt like his feet were glued to the floor. Something was wrong with him then it hit him. '_Genjutsu?' _His vision snapped back to where Zetsu _**had **_been to see nothing there. '_Damn, I was hoping to at least injure someone, shit! This wasn't the way I thought I would ever go.' _As the clamps began to close Shikamaru tried to use a technique to increase the size of the shuriken he had in his hands. For a moment it seemed like it was going to work but then Kisame knocked it out of the Nara's hands with his sword. '_Damn!' _Shikamaru shouted in his mind. '_Naruto….I'm sorry.' _

A vivid picture of Naruto appeared in Shikamaru's vision as the clamps snapped closed.

'_Sorry, everyone.'_

--

"Damn this is hard." Kiba hissed from behind a fallen over tree. He was nursing a wounded arm as from behind Itachi and Isami were clashing katana. "Can we beat these guys?"

"Kiba!" Ino said as she landed next to him. "How're you holding up?"

"Better then some. This is nothing believe me." Kiba smirked as Ino began to use charka to heal his arm. "This is looking bad….Listen, I want you and Hinata to take Gaara and get out of here."

"What about you guys?" Ino asked.

"Forget about us. Our mission is important. If the Kazekage dies then we've got nothing left to fight with." Kiba growled as he balled his fists.

"Then they want to take Kankuro…" Gaara's voice before he made his presence clear next to them. "I had a feeling that something like this would happen to I made Kankuro, Kazekage long before the attack. The Akatsuki will be after me, so it shouldn't be a problem if you run with Kankuro."

"Gaara…" Kiba said in a surprised tone. For a moment the two met eye to eye before Kiba nodded. "Alright then; Ino, take Hinata, Shino, and Tamari and go."

"Why suddenly a bigger group?" Ino asked.

"Because I know that Gaara could still defend himself pretty damn well if he had too, don't get me wrong, Kankuro is strong but not on the same level as Gaara." Kiba explained. "So I want you to go. I'll distract the kid so you guys can leave. Gaara make them know that it's you here and not one of us, it'll make them ignore the retreating force."

"Kiba…if I don't see you again, I want you to know you were a great ninja." Ino smiled.

"If I see Naruto I'll tell him everyone said "hi." Though I bet it would just piss hi off that he couldn't do anything in the end." Kiba laughed before standing up. Ino slowly crawled away as the Inuzuka cracked his knuckles then threw an exploding kunai at Izumi. "Hey kid! If you don't like Akamaru then you're really gonna hate me."

"That wasn't very nice, I was going to kill you last but it looks like it can't be helped. Hm?" Izumi sounded as the dust settled and a barrier of metal protected him from the blast. He looked over his shoulder as the group Kiba said to run started to make a retreat. "Where are they going?" he asked facing them ready to attack he sent out a group of kunai but a large sand fist stopped the attack and allowed the group to run. "So the real Kazekage _**is **_here. That's surprising."

"It's my duty to protect my people and I've had enough of running from you." Gaara said as he stood on a mound of floating sand. "I don't like the idea of ganging up on a child but you are of Akatsuki and I can't let you walk away."

"You mean I can't let you walk away right? It's too bad really. I think it would have been fun to make more friends." Izumi smiled as he twisted a kunai in his hand.

"Cocky little punk aren't you?" Kiba asked as he rubbed the right side of his nose before reaching down to his leg to pull out three Shuriken.

"I guess I should be serious here huh?" Izumi asked with a smile as he cocked his head to one side. "Nii-san! Can I use it here? Please!?" the boy called to the man who was busy defending from Itachi's relentless attack.

"Do what you wish." Isami called back before he jumped up and landed on a high branch. His breath was steady and calm while Itachi's on the other hand was fast and labored. "Getting tired already?"

"I'm just getting started." Itachi growled before chasing after Isami who was now retreating from the current fight. "Come back here."

"Uchiha! Don't loose your head!" Kiba called but it was too late and Itachi was gone in a rustle of leaves. "Damnit."

"Alright! Nii-san is safely away now I can get _serious._" Izumi said before he lowered his head and his bangs covered his brown eyes. "Don't worry, this'll be over quickly." The child's voice suddenly dropped to a deep and ominous tone. The air around the three started to become thick with tension while every hair on the back of Gaara and Kiba's necks stood on end. "**Kyuukyoku houyou no jutsu!****"** Izumi said as his hands blurred together before slapping jointly at once. Izumi's eyes again became visible and where no longer big and innocent but narrow and evil to the extent that made Orochimaru seem like a child.

"What the…What's going on!?" Kiba shouted as clouds of black rolled in above them and the ground shook below them. Moments later everything became quiet, almost serene. The sudden layer of calm set the two defending ninja into a completely defensive mode.

"Whit this, your lives will end. It was nice talking to you." Izumi smiled evilly before spreading his hands out toward Kiba. For a moment nothing happened and Kiba thought it to be a bluff until a low hum was heard from above and a very subtle vibration was felt from the ground.

No other words were spoken, not a muscle moved, or an eyelash batted when a rain of kunai fell from the sky and massive katana rose from the ground. Kiba felt every inch of his body stabbed until suddenly everything was gone. No sound, no pain, no feeling, just oblivion.

Gaara had covered himself in a ball of sand cursing himself for not saving Kiba. He watched from a very small hole as the shinobi and his dog were impaled with kunai and katana from above and below. Gaara could not self blame for long before a kunai broke through the sand above him and dug into his back. "Argh!" Gaara cried before he moved to avoid a second kunai coming down the same hole. "I can't withstand this for much longer." He murmured before pulling out the kunai and looking at it. "Damn it…Naruto…how do you think I did?" he asked before katana sprung up from below. After a few more seconds Gaara shared the same feelings that Kiba had felt.

Oblivion.

**--**

_**(Itachi Pov)**_

I don't understand why I'm acting so irrational right now. I should have stayed with the other two and fought but I didn't. I'm sure I heard a low rumble just a moment ago too. I'm not sure what it was but…I don't have a geed feeling about this.

"Well Uchiha-kun, you don't seem very smart, either way you would meet your end quickly. I'll make it quick so you can join the rest of your kin."

'_Where's he at?' _I asked as I looked from one place to another. "**Bakuhatsuteki Maru!****" **I called as my eyes swirled and around me a large circle of fire appeared; shortly after it's appearance it flattened out and cut through the trees causing them to go crashing down to the forest floor in flames.

"A desperate move is it?" Isami's voice whispered behind me. His hot breath swept over the back of my neck and before I could turn I felt something go through my back. For a moment nothing happened but then I coughed up a massive amount of blood. "I'll show you what it really feels like to have "fear" grip your heart." Isami hummed a laugh before I felt something grip my heart. I felt my world stop then, he sqeezed the life out of me. For a few secounds I was still alive but then my vision blurred and I fell. Death taking me into its eternal embrace.

"Sa..suke." Was the final word out of my mouth before I met with the flaming trees and brush below and black was all I knew.

--

**(Seireitei)**

Naruto sat looking up into the night sky wearing a white kimono that he normally wore to bed. Earlier in the day he and Ichigo took Neji to the Shinigami School where he was enrolled to become a Shinigami. The blonde Namikaze sighed as a light breeze move his hair around a bit carrying the sent of Sakura blossoms with it.

"How many more will show up here?" Naruto wondered out loud before scratching his exposed chest. Unknown to Naruto, Sai stood with his back against the wall around the corner listening to the blonde third seat. Sai had come to the conclusion that Naruto would only talk to him if he was ready to talk but what the black haired male could not understand was why Naruto did not want to talk to him. "What am _**I **_gonna do right now though? Sai's here now, Sasuke wants me to watch him, and Toushiro…hmm." Naruto hummed a little before he leaned on the wood post next to him.

"Naruto." Minato's voice called from Naruto's right. The younger blonde's blue eyes met with the older as he walked quietly to his son and sat down. "You look troubled."

"Just a little." Naruto shrugged. "You heard another ninja showed up right?"

"I have, a Hyuuga nonetheless." Minato smiled to his son. "But that's not what's bothering you is it?"

"Not really, I am kind of wondering if more ninja are gonna show but…I'm having a harder time with "life" so to speak." Naruto told his father. "Did…did you let Sai live here?"

"You haven't spoken to him?" Minato asked.

"No…" Naruto admitted softly. "I can't face him…" the blonde looked away a little. "I can't really explain it but…"

"Something happened with Hitsugaya-Taicho, right?" Minato asked with a smile.

"You knew?" Naruto snapped his head around to look at his dad.

"More or less." Minato said as he scratched his cheek. "I already know about the things that happened with Sasuke-kun, and Sai-kun for that matter. Does that help so you can speak for freely?"

"You're not…mad?"

"Why would I be? You're my son, I've been waiting a long time to get the chance to actually be a father and here it is. I'll support you no matter what." Minato smiled as he put a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Thanks…dad." Naruto grinned dumbly before the two Namikaze men began to laugh.

Sai looked to the floor as he thought about what he should do now. After a few moments he decided to leave. The Uzuki was not about to eavesdrop on Naruto to figure out why the blonde would not talk to him. He would wait for Naruto to tell him all on his own.

-+--+-

_(Chapter End)_

I'm done with the ninja chapter at long last! I was working on this since my last update, I've been slow because I really didn't like this chapter but I wanted to do something to show what happened so I can put some characters in where I wanted them to go. Everyone that died in this chapter is going to Seireitei so you can look forward to that. I really did not want to kill the ninja that fast but I didn't want to take a lot of time on this chapter so I got kind of half and half with that idea. That's it for now. Wait for my next update, and REVIEW!

Yoi Ichinichi o.

Akari, Kaiku


	10. Chapter Nine

Author Time:

_Author Time:_

_Guess who went to Anime Expo for the fourth year in a row? Kaiku did! I had fun too. I went to this fan fiction writing panel and workshop and got some good ideas from it too. They were saying to leave and look for other sites to post on but I don't really want to. I'll do that some other time or something. I'll just keep posting here regardless of review numbers and stuff. Well, here's the new chapter, enjoy._

-+--+

**Chapter Nine: ****Sadness and Sorrow**

"_**The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy."**_

(Naruto Third PoV)

The day seemed to start as if everything was normal again. The morning ritual that Naruto used to perform every day after he got into Squad Six seemed to have risen again. Waking up, rolling out of bed, committing to the play of good hygiene, getting dressed, placing Zanpakutou is place, then leaving the room. Naruto then walked down the outside hallway toward the kitchen where he made a quick breakfast of toast two eggs and a glass of orange juice. The blonde boy ate without any haste, he was rarely late for his shift on top of the fact that he never really got in trouble with his captain as it was.

As Naruto chewed through his second piece of toast with an egg sitting on the tanned bread, the kitchen door opened and a very tired looking Sai walked in. For a moment Naruto thought about leaving but decided to stay still. Sai lived here too and Naruto knew that he would eventually have to talk to Sai. One way or another…

The ebony haired male did not seem to notice Naruto was there and walked right past the Namikaze and to the fridge where he opened the white door and pulled out the bottle of milk. After shuffling over to the cabinet he extracted a tall clear glass before pouring it full of milk then putting the bottle away. "I'm not used to night shifts." The taller boy muttered before he turned around and began to drink his beverage. As he tilted the glass up his vision rose until he was looking at Naruto eye to eye. Blue to black…

For a moment he did not move he just stood still without so much as taking in any of his drink. Naruto on the other hand was still chewing his egg-toast as he looked at Sai. The blonde was a little confused with himself right now. Before when he first saw Sai and a few other times he sat the black haired artist he felt his heart drop but not now. He felt fine, and because of this Naruto thought he might be ready to talk to Sai.

After he crammed the rest of his breakfast into his mouth he chewed it quickly before downing his glass of juice. Sai lowered his milk to look at Naruto hoping that the speed of his finishing meant he wanted to talk. After the blonde put the glass down he took a deep breath to recover from chugging juice then looked at Sai. He made a difficult face as he tried to think of what to start with.

"This is a lame way to start a conversation, but…you look tired, did Toushiro _just _put you on night shift last night?" Naruto questioned trying to start somewhere.

"If you mean Hitsugaya-Taicho, yes." Sai answered with a confused tone.

"Oh yeah, if I'm talking to someone other then dad and Ichigo I'm supposed to use Hitsugaya…oh well, so…how have you been?" Naruto continued.

"Pretty alright, I suppose." Sai spoke in a low tone.

"That's…awesome…er…" Naruto stuttered a little, he was starting to feel like an idiot. He tried to think of something else to say but all that came to mind was to apologize. In defeat Naruto bowed his head and opened his mouth. "I'm sorry." Sai's eyebrows perked at this wondering where it was really coming from. "I…I wanted to talk to you but, some things happened just before I saw you that morning and I felt like I couldn't face you. I was really confused and even now I kind of am. Sasuke, he asked me to watch him, to wait for him to make up for what he did, but I don't think I can." As Naruto spoke Sai wanted to say something but the black haired male kept himself from talking. He wanted to hear all of what Naruto had to tell him.

"I know you wouldn't think this or maybe you would, but I don't think I deserve someone like you Sai. You were there for me when Sasuke was gone and you probably tried your hardest to get me back after Akatsuki got me. Me on the other hand, I slept with Toushiro because I was drunk, which I don't think I'll drink for a while now, but I kind of feel something there now. I…I'm lost about what to do about anything to do with love so for now I'm just going to do my job and live the best way I know how to right now." Naruto told Sai with a bit more confidence with each sentence. "So, I'm sorry Sai, I don't think things can be like they were in life. As much as I still love you I can't like I used to."

There was a quiet between the two for a bit before Sai smiled which threw Naruto for a loop. After the smile formed fully Sai began to chuckle a little before he put down his glass and whipped tears from his eyes. "Thank god." He said before looking at Naruto looking happier then the blonde had ever seen him. "I thought that you hated me." Sai explained. "I can understand everything you're telling me, and I'm happy just being near you. I don't need any more then that. Being able to actually hear you makes me happier then you'll ever know." Sai told Naruto. "Please talk to me even if you feel like it would be a bad thing; I love just hearing you. Okay?"

Naruto stared at Sai's tired black eyes before he slowly smiled. "Thank you, Sai. I promise to talk to you no matter what, but you better be ready for the consequences of that promise."

"Right." Sai smiled before the two began to just chat like nothing bad had happened; like they were once again friends.

--

"Oi! Naruto! Come on already!" Ichigo called from the doorway.

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto hollered back before waving good-bye to Sai then trotting to the door. He pulled on his waraji before tying them on and pulling the door open so he and Ichigo could leave.

"You talked to that Sai guy?" Ichigo questioned looking at Sai before he followed Naruto outside.

"Yep, and man do I feel a lot better now!" the blonde smiled like crazy as Ichigo shut the door and the two lighter haired teens began to walk. "I was worried about a lot of stuff for nothing so I feel better now."

"That's good." Ichigo smirked. "Now we can go back to the same old song and dance right?"

"I don't want to drink for a while…unless I start feeling horny." Naruto grinned as he heard Ichigo groan.

"I didn't need to hear that." Ichigo complained as he and Naruto rounded a corner.

"You know, I wonder what Kuchiki-Taicho is like when he's drunk." Naruto wondered aloud. "I bet he sings bad karaoke." The blonde snickered.

"I hope he hears you and puts you on cleaning." Ichigo said before he thought about it. "Oh god I can see it now, Byakuya drunk singing Sakura Drops by Utada Hikaru as he's got Senbonzakura flying all over the place for effects." Ichigo began to chuckle. Naruto simply stared at Ichigo until a loud crack was heard and Ichigo screamed out in pain. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?"

"Good morning Taicho!" Naruto smiled.

"That is not appropriate conversation for this early in the morning, keep that in mind." Byakuya spoke as he put his kendo sword back in place and swept past the two with an aura of anger brimming from him.

"That one sounded like it hurt." Naruto said as he looked down at Ichigo who was clutching the back of his head as he moaned in pain. "Yep. It hurt." Naruto laughed before Ichigo grabbed his hakama.

"This is your fault, I'll kill you!" Ichigo growled. Naruto felt impending doom and quickly pulled his foot away before running very quickly in the direction that his captain had just taken. "Get back here Naruto!" Ichigo screamed as he got up and started to give chase. He did not care that Byakuya was going to be near when he caught up to Naruto, Ichigo was going to inflict pain.

"Hah! You wouldn't do…" Naruto turned to laugh after he caught up to Byakuya but noticed that Ichigo was coming at him full steam. "OH SHIT!" he shouted before he ran past Byakuya and toward the Division Quarters. "He's gonna kill me!"

"Naruto you little bastard I'm going to show you how much that actually hurt, come here!" Ichigo shouted as he jetted past Byakuya wind blowing as he followed the blonde.

Byakuya meanwhile stopped walking and stared as his two subordinates ran past him screaming loudly back and fourth. "What did I do to deserve this?" he asked himself before shaking his head and calmly walking inside. After he opened the door he had expected to see the two still running around or Naruto in pain in the corner but neither appeared. He looked to the right to see Megumi disciplining the two boys. With a shake of his head Byakuya turned and walked to his office hoping that Megumi would insure some peace as long as she was on duty.

Megumi was, in short, the squad secretary and the mother figure that kept the two light haired teens in line from day to day. She had ridiculously long brunette hair and bright brown eyes hidden behind small square glasses.

"You two need to stop acting like children!" Megumi spoke as she waved her figure at them. "Kurosaki-san you are Fukutaicho! Try to act like it and Namikaze-san you're Third Seat try to act with more restraint!"

"Sorry." Naruto apologized bowing his head.

"Good, Kurosaki-san?" Megumi questioned with raise eye brows. Ichigo was about to speak when a knock issued form the door. "Coming!"

"Wait let me apologize!" Ichigo shouted but it was too late. Megumi was walking away from them and to the door. "She's going to invoke the wrath of the gods on me."

Naruto snickered before the door opened and his attention went there. "Ero-Sennin!" Naruto chimed as he stood up quickly and jogged over to the Tenth Seat of Ninth Division.

"Stop calling me that…" Jiraiya growled in a low tone as he walked in shutting the door behind him. "I'm not a Sennin much less a ninja anymore so you're completely inaccurate."

"Hmm," Naruto hummed as he placed his chin between his thumb and index fingers. "You have a point…I guess I should change it to Ero-Taicho…"

"Just stop with the "ero" crap already!" Jiraiya snapped before Byakuya opened the door to his office and looked out. "Ah Kuchiki-Taicho, I was just chatting with Naruto a little, I'll get to my business now." The old frog hermit said as he patted Naruto hard on the back before leaving.

"Tch, I call it like I see it, _Ero-Taicho!_" Naruto muttered folding his arms. He looked back at Ichigo who looked utterly lost at this point. "That's the first time you've see him huh?" When Naruto received a nod in reply he turned around to face Ichigo. "Ero-Taicho, Jiraiya, was my teacher, well one of them, when I was alive. Funny thing it he thought my dad too. He's a major perv and he actually writes that kind of crap. When I was training with him for a few years he made me read some of his stuff. Seeing as it was either girl on girl or girl on guy stuff I got easily bored with it. Besides…I don't get off on reading that kind of stuff period." With the ending of the last sentence Naruto flicked his hand out with a rejecting motion with his eyes shut. The blonde then opened his eyes to look at Ichigo to see what kind of expression he had on his face.

"Why…are you telling me this?" Ichigo shuddered as his head twitched before he looked away from Naruto.

"I dunno. I'm done talking about it now so don't worry." Naruto said with a stupid grin. "Anyway, we should go to Rukongai today."

"What for?" Ichigo questioned in annoyance.

"More people I know might be there, and so far everyone that's come from my place has been Shinigami. That I know of anyway; on top of the fact that people from where I'm from get through school faster too. Seven years for normal souls, but a ninja's soul takes at max four minimum is two. Sasuke and I got out in three years, my dad told me he took four and Sai told me he took two." Naruto started. Ichigo was quickly losing interest in what the Namikaze was telling him because he already knew half of it. "You're not listening to me, asshole!"

"You just noticed?" Ichigo yawned before he went and sat down on a couch. "I don't want to go to Rukongai, so go on your own."

"I will…" Naruto said before walking toward the door. "Jerk." He muttered before walking out and down the open hall way. Once he reached the end of the straight path he turned to look back at the door before proceeding to use shunpo to arrive at the gate leading out to Rukongai. "I wonder if I will find anyone."

"Naruto?" Sasuke's voice caught the blonde's attention.

"Naru-chan!" two other females called in unison before the Namikaze was hugged very tightly.

"Hikari-chan, Akari-chan, I can't breathe!" Naruto gasped as the hug turned into a form of suffocation.

"Sorry." The two chimed with smiled on their faces as they let go of the teenaged looking Naruto.

"What are you doing? Going to Rukongai?" Sasuke asked as he put a hand on his hip.

"Yeah, actually, I found Neji yesterday and I was hoping to find more people today. It would be really awesome." Naruto grinned like an idiot before scratching the back of his head. "Like what if we found Shikamaru, Kiba, or Gaara?"

"I hope that stays as an 'or.'" Sasuke sighed making a difficult face. "If that many of our comrades died that means something really bad in happening back in that world, but it also means that more souls from that world are coming to this one."

Naruto fell quiet as the mention that a lot of their comrades were dying if they found that many in the same place. "Even if we find a lot of people we know, we can't exactly do anything about it can we; about what's going on in our world? We're dead, remember?"

"I understand that. To think you'd be the one wanting to forget." Sasuke hummed. "Well, Hikari, Akari, and I are going to Rukongai to stop by the Academy and escort some new Shinigami to Seireitei, I suppose we can help you a little. If anything these two can take care of the Shinigami and I'll help you. _**I do know**_ what they look like."

"Alright! Then this is operation, locate ninja!" Naruto shouted punching the air.

--

"If I were a shinobi in Rukongai where would I go?" Naruto questioned allowed as he looked from place to place hoping for a glace at a familiar face.

"You never had to live in Rukongai before did you?" Sasuke asked as Naruto looked up a tree. The blonde Namikaze looked at Sasuke before shaking his head.

"My dad caught my soul coming through before I even broke through to this place. I woke up in Seireitei and before I knew it he was in the room spouting that he was my dad." Naruto explained scratching the back of his head. "I don't know much about Rukongai because of that."

"I see." Sasuke sounded as he pushed a curled finger to his bottom lip. "Well it's not that hard to figure out. The areas are huge, sure, but it's pretty straight forward. The different districts represent the area the soul came from in the world, and then they spread out depending on their personality. The rougher soul's warder into the more dangerous parts and kinder souls try to get to the safer areas." Sasuke said as he watched Naruto trek through some tall grass. "It doesn't always work out like that though."

"If you're not tough it's hard to move around huh?" Naruto questioned as he pulled out of the grass and stood next to Sasuke again. "You were out here then I take it?"

"With my family." Sasuke nodded his head and waited for a surprised response.

"Your…family? Their here?" Naruto questioned with a confused face before he smiled and nodded his head. "I guess "fate" can't screw you over every time huh? I'm happy for you, I guess the both of us made out pretty good with family in this place didn't we?"

"Yeah."

"What do you mean I gotta pay!? How the hell do you even get money in this place!?" a loud sickeningly familiar voice screamed at a vendor on the streets. "I just want a piece of food you can't be even a little nice and give a guy a break?"

"Either pay up or clear off!" the vendor shouted back as a crowd began to form.

"What's going on here?" Sasuke's voice rang clear through the crowd. The people slowly split down the middle to give the two Shinigami a clear view of the vendor and the angry customer.

"This kid comes up asking for food without paying." The vendor spoke pointing at a tall teen with brunette spiky hair.

Sasuke and Naruto carefully look at the mentioned "kid" with raised eyebrows before Sasuke smirked. "Kiba."

"Holy shit…" Kiba said slowly before Naruto walked up to the shop.

"Here, this is for two loafs of bread." Naruto said handing the vendor and good amount of cash before he took two packs of bread then Kiba's hand and lead the three once shinobi out of the crowd. No words were exchanged until the small group reached a stream and Naruto gave Kiba the bread. "I take it you're hungry, right?"

"Naruto…Sasuke…" Kiba said each name as he looked to the owner. "I'm dead aren't I?"

"Yeah, and this place isn't heaven or hell. A place between you could say." Sasuke nodded his head before crossing his arms. "It's…good to see you again."

"I figured that you'd be a lot older looking the next time I saw you." Naruto smiled before patting Kiba on the back.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Kiba snapped.

"We didn't expect to see you dead for a lot longer; any of our comrades actually." Sasuke explained.

"Neji's here." Naruto muttered before he smiled at Kiba. "He's already training to be a Shinigami like Sasuke and me."

"Shinigami?" Kiba asked confused. "Wait…Neji's here? Where? Never mind, then…maybe…"

"What?" Naruto questioned with a clearly confused expression. "Gaara…and Ita—" Kiba stopped himself short before looking at Sasuke. "I think you should know something really important right here and now, your brother didn't kill you."

"What…?" Sasuke asked slowly in shock as his arms fell to his side.

"Marada, Uchiha Marada killed you. I don't have the right to tell you way your brother really did everything he did to you and your family but if he's here you should hear him out before you try to kill him or whatever you might do." Kiba spoke with confidence.

Sasuke was quiet for a long time before he looked away with a sigh. "I was going to ask him questions first anyway."

"Alright." Kiba smiled.

"If he is here though…" Sasuke trailed off. The dark black eyes of the youngest Uchiha locked on the floor before he looked up. "I have to go."

"Sasuke?" Naruto questioned. "Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Home? Seireitei…no…He said his family was here. He might think Itachi will show up there! Come on we're gonna follow him. Hold on." Naruto's voice began to get panicky before he grabbed a hold of Kiba's hand and used Shunpo to follow Sasuke who had vanished while Naruto had been talking. The Inuzuka began to get scared as everything around him blurred together before becoming single and blurring again. After a while of doing the same motions a number of times the two found Sasuke speedily walking toward a large housing complex. Naruto stared for a minute before he heard loud angry voices coming from the houses. Naruto looked to Kiba before he sprinted after Sasuke quickly. Kiba followed the best he could without tripping over veins sticking up from the ground.

"What do you think you're doing here?" a strong male voice called over the hum of many angry voices.

"Kill him! Banish him!" a few people shouted in angry.

"I don't know why I came here." Itachi's voice said over the rumble of the other Uchiha.

"We should kill you here and now you understand that don't you?" Uchiha Fugaku spoke sternly.

"I accept any punishment I have earned." Itachi said as he bowed his head.

"Father!" Sasuke called as he ran into the middle of the grounds standing a few feet behind Itachi. "Allow me to give Itachi his punishment!"

"Sasuke, how'd you know he was even here?" Fugaku asked with slight confusion.

"Another shinobi from Konoha said that Itachi might be in Rukongai, I was just making a guess." Sasuke explained. Naruto and Kiba stood far back by the entrance watching the events unfold before them.

"I see. What punishment do you have in mind for him?" Fugaku asked his youngest son.

"First; that he is not allowed to come within one hundred yards of this home, second; that he spend the rest of his life here working in Seireitei as a Shinigami so that he only be allowed to come near here if under orders of his Taicho or the Soutaichou." Sasuke spoke kneeling so that the back of his neck was exposed to his father. "A slave to the Shinigami with no place to truly call home, that should be his punishment."

"Sasuke…" Itachi said lowly staring at his little brother with eyes far past surprised.

A buzz began to spread throughout the Uchiha with confusion and anger mixed into the side talks. Kiba and Naruto looked around concerned for what was going to happen next. Sasuke stayed as he was in an unmoving stance while Itachi stared. Before long Fugaku demanded silence before he spoke.

"This is a kinder punishment you have named for this traitor then what we would have expected you to give him. Why?" Fugaku questioned.

"Itachi did not kill me."

"Then who did?"

"Uchiha Marada."

At the mention of this name it sounded as if a riot would brake out at any moment. Fugaku calmed his clam before he spoke again. "That does indeed weaken his punishment, but we would like to add one more thing to which you have given him." Fugaku spoke before stepping down and walking to his sons. "You may stand Sasuke." The youngest Uchiha rose to his feet before looking down at Itachi. "Itachi, you will no longer be considered part of this family, your right to the Uchiha name is no longer yours to have. From now on as you move it will no longer be as Uchiha. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Itachi muttered.

"Good. Now leave here. I hope you never return." Fugaku said before he turned his back on Itachi. "Take him from here Sasuke."

"Understood, father." Sasuke spoke before he pulled Itachi to his feet and escorted the older Uchiha out of the home. Naruto and Kiba followed quietly as the group walked along. It seemed as if no one would ever talk until Sasuke let out a breath he seemed to have been holding. "I didn't think that would have actually worked."

"Dude, a lot of those people looked seriously pissed." Naruto commented.

"I thought that they were gonna kill you and him." Kiba nodded between Sasuke and Itachi.

"Sasuke….I…" Itachi started but Sasuke stopped him.

"I don't want to hear anything from you. For the time being you just need to go to Shinigami School and get into a squad, do well enough and a family will take you in so you'll have a name to go by once more. We are not brothers; I am your superior right now. I'll talk to you again when you are part of a Squad." Sasuke spoke in a harsh tone.

"Understood."

After the final exchange of words Sasuke walked a bit away before he turned to look at Naruto. "Sorry but could you take them to the school, I need to go back and report to Namikaze-Taicho…He told me he wanted to know if any more shinobi were found."

"Yeah sure, no biggie." Naruto nodded a bit. "Tell him I might be late coming home." Naruto added in quickly before Sasuke nodded and left.

"Namikaze-Taicho?" Itachi asked in a questioning tone. "Does he mean Namikaze Minato. Yondaime Hokage?"

"My dad, yeah." Naruto said looking to the former Uchiha. "We've got all the time in the world to talk late about stuff but for now let's get you guys in school, so you can talk to Sasuke and so you can eat without yelling at the guy on the street."

"I gotta go back to school!?" Kiba shouted loudly.

"Well, it's not always accurate but when you get hungry here it's because you've got potential to be a Shinigami. What about you Itachi-san any hunger going on?"

"A bit…I guess, I can't say I have an appetite after what just happened." Itachi muttered.

"I wouldn't either, but that's over now, come on." Naruto smiled before he led the way.

--

(Sasuke PoV)

What did I just do? I don't understand what I just did. I saved him, saved Itachi, from another death. I still don't really believe what Kiba told me. Who could at this point? I'd need to hear everything, and I mean everything from Itachi first. Maybe that's why I had the family spare him, so that I can talk to him and get the full story about everything.

"Death here is a second chance to having a life." I said as I looked up at the sky. It had long since darkened with a glitter of white stars covering the darkness. "I hope I don't regret letting him live later on."

I told myself before I shrugged and kept walking. In the past few days so much as happened. I have a bad feeling that something very bad is going to happen very soon. How could anyone not with the Arrancar breaking into Seireitei, and then all of these ninja appearing here? Is the gate leading to this world of death lodged open or something else? I don't know what's going on anymore.

Not that I knew everything to begin with.

--+--+--

(Chapter End)

_I try to make a point that you guys should review and what happens? I only get one review for the last chapter. I know at this point I'm just writing this still to amuse myself and not a bunch of snot nosed little pin heads that can't review worth a damn. I happen to like reviews; even flames amuse me because I can just laugh at them. Oh well, I guess there's no point to saying any of this. You guys probably never read these notes anyway._

_Yoi Ichinichi o._

_(Not)_

_Akari Kaiku_


	11. Chapter Ten

Author Time:

_Author Time: _

_Alright it is time for yet another chapter of Desire is Half of Life. I'm really happy that the number of reviews went back up. I know I might expect too much but getting eight one chapter and one the next chapter is a little harsh on the readers part. If I'm going in a direction you don't like tell me about it. Gezz, anyway, I just realized that have been writing this fan fiction for over a year now. I had a long pause there for a while but then I got back on it an I give out chapters pretty quickly IMO and I want to thank the people that have been reading. Right now I really want to thank __**Saiou-chan**__ for the most awesome review I have gotten to date. Why? It was an actual critique review. I've never received a review that told me about grammar errors or punctuation mistakes so I'm in love. (HAVE MY BABIES!) Ahem, now, on to the story._

-+--+

**Chapter Ten:**** Refractions**

"_**The beginning is the most important part of how the end will turn out.**__**"**_

(Naruto PoV)

Time flies when it's all you have. Days turn into years without so much as a moment's notice and in the end you're faced with the dawn of a new age. It's been three years since I arrived in this place. Three years since I died and I'm finding myself reflecting on that time already. Some would think that it takes a lot more time then that but that would mean that they've never had several things happen back to back. Granted that the things that all happened at once made life here more interesting, but I just can't help but to look back on the quiet times before what started what would probably lead into some major event.

The biggest shock I was met with when I arrived here, my dad. I never expected him to be here, nonetheless for him to be the same man that had sealed the Kyuubi within me. I told myself a long time ago that I didn't hate the man that had sealed the fox in me. I kind of wanted to thank him. If I hadn't had that monster I would have never made the friends I did, maybe not even have lived as long as I did. I still haven't thanked him but my dad is the only reason that I've got the friends I do. Even now in death it's all thanks to him.

The years went on and by the time I was in Division Six I had already befriended the Fukutaicho, Kurosaki Ichigo, and somewhat the Taicho, Kuchiki Byakuya. I think I had the best experience being a new Squad member then anyone else in history. I wasn't treated like some kind of outcast newbie but like I had already been a part of the Squad for years. This helped me out more then either of my commanding officers would ever know and even now I'm having the time of my after-life.

Meeting other people was an interesting point for me. For a long time I had thought of the separate divisions the same way that the villages back home were like, so when I met Hitsugaya Toushiro for the first time I was cautious. Ichigo thought I was being stupid and when I asked him about how the divisions acted afterward he said that we were divided sure enough but we were also united. I didn't understand what Ichigo had meant by that but after some time I came to my own understanding. We could be called by our different divisions but in the end we are all the same. The next time after that when I meet Toushiro I considered him as a friend and we wound up kind of close ever since.

After that everything was kind of okay, like it had been rehearsed everyday was the same. I was content with that but then, Sasuke showed up. For a bit I just would have guessed that it would have added another repeating phase to my day but it was the signal of change. The night after I saw Sasuke I slept with Hitsugaya and that next morning Sai appeared. I felt that I was at the breaking point because it was all happening too fast. Sai, Sasuke, Toushiro, I didn't think I could handle it and then; the Arrancar attack. Orochimaru I would have pegged as a Hollow from the start if I knew what they were when I was alive but Sakura? Why is Sakura a Hollow? I still don't understand that one at all, also if she's a Hollow, who else could be? I don't want to fight my friends like that if they are Hollow.

I guess Sasuke would call me weak because of that. That's why he had to save me from her too. I can't fight my friends and I wonder if I'll have to do it again anytime soon.

Coming away from past events the current ones are more interesting. My dad heard about what happened to Itachi. I guess he felt bad for him or something but he decided that he wanted Itachi to be part of our family no matter what. At first Itachi turned him down but after two weeks of constant nagging the former Uchiha gave in and now is named Namikaze Itachi. Funny how that worked out huh? I would have never been able to call it but dad said he knew Itachi when he was a child and that he felt it would be his responsibility to take care of ninja who had come from Konoha. I sometimes don't understand his logic but I think I understand this bit.

Dad was once Hokage, he was once in charge of making sure that all of the people of Konoha were safe, so holding true to his past title dad is taking take of former Konoha residents and giving them a place to call home. Come to think of home, I don't know how dad got this house. It's huge and able to harbor at least a hundred people, but I don't know how he got it. Toushiro lives in an apartment, so does Sasuke, and Ichigo lives on the Kuchiki land with Kuchiki-Taicho, so how did dad get enough land for it to be called the Namikaze Estate? I'll get around to asking him sometime or another, like I said before, it's pretty much all I have a head of me.

--

**(Third PoV)**

"Good morning Naruto-kun." Sai's voice broke through the slight morning stupor that Naruto had been in. Sai smiled to the blonde in earnest. Naruto was the only one that Sai would show a real smile to because Naruto was the only to ever make Sai actually feel emotion; maybe Sakura but that emotion was somewhere along the line of fear, fear for his life. Sai had leaned early on that there were two things you never did in front of Sakura: bad mouth Uchiha Sasuke, or tell her she was ugly.

"G'mornin'." Naruto yawned while he stretched his arms high over his head. "Did you just get off?" Naruto questioned letting his hands fall to the wood flooring.

"Yes." Sai answered before taking a seat next to Naruto. "You're about to head out right?"

"In a little bit." Naruto commented with a hum. "We don't get much time huh? I guess that might be my fault. Toushiro might be trying to protect me from talking to you."

"I figured that might have been the reason." Sai assumed as he lightly shook his head looking to the ground. He looked back up at Naruto to find a confused face on the blonde. "I was a ninja once you know, and analyzing situations quickly was part of the job requirement; though I guess that wasn't your strong point."

"Hey!" Naruto defended before scrunching his nose and looking away angrily. "I had my own ninja way! You know that better then everyone on top of that!"

"True." Sai laughed slightly leaning lightly away from Naruto to get a clearer look of him. "There are a lot of things I'm sure I know better then others, but that's not exactly appropriate conversation."

"Of course you would say that." Naruto shook his head before sighing then looking at the dark eyed teen. "You were the first person to comment about my penis so you'd be the first one to talk about other things too."

"Is that really what you think?" Sai said faking an offended voice before facing away from Naruto as if he had been hurt. "I'm sad to hear that."

"You can't bull-shit with me Sai. I know better." Naruto muttered making a face that said 'give me a brake.'

"I sorry, I don't think I can keep talking to you. You think of me as a dirty old man in the end." Sai said with a tone of pain as he stood up. "Farewell, Naruto-kun."

Naruto stared as Sai began to walk away. His expression was unchanging until Sai glanced back with hurt eyes. Feeling a slight guilt Naruto called for the Uzuki to stop. "I'm sorry." Naruto said before Sai turned on heel with a grin it was quiet for a moment before Naruto spoke again. "What do you mean dirty old man?"

Sai's face slowly fell to a slightly confused expression before a yawn surfaced from the older Shinigami. Naruto was caught of guard when Sai's mouth began to widen and had braced himself for something more then a yawn. The blonde laughed nervously when Sai gave him a confused look. "I've only seen that three times now." Naruto chuckled scratching his nose lightly. "Yawn." He explained when Sai's face showed more confusion.

With a sound of understanding Sai shrugged before a smile returned to his face. "Well, as much as I don't want to, I need to go to sleep. I'll see you when you get home."

"Right, rest well." Naruto waved before Sai turned to walk off to his room where he would find a comfortable bed to sleep on.

"I wonder how today will turn out." Naruto said looking to the top of a pine tree with a smile. He hoped that things would stay has they had for the last month. Nothing had been too exciting, but not to the point of boring. Things had been picking up because someone supposedly got a lead on the Hollow movements. "Well, time to go." Naruto stood before proceeding along the wood walk way to the front steps where he found Ichigo waiting for him. "You're like a faithful dog the way you wait for me every morning."

"Say what you want, if there was a day I wasn't here you'd freak out and look for me." Ichigo murmured cleaning out his ear.

"Wanna test that?" Naruto said amused taking his place to the right of the Kurosaki.

"No," Ichigo's tone caused the blonde to make a difficult face. "I do it so that if I don't show up one day you'll know something's wrong. Unless I told you I wouldn't be there naturally; although, I think that you'd probably forget until you've got half of Sixth Division looking for me." Ichigo laughed trying to lighten the heavy mood he had brought about with his words.

"Why would you not show up without warning?" Naruto asked with slightly darkened eyes.

"I've…seen a lot of demented stuff since I've be able to become a Shinigami. You're the person here that I trust the most." Ichigo smiled to Naruto. After looking at Naruto's thoroughly confused expression he laughed before he continued. "Did you know that most all souls that come to Soul Society lose the memories of when they were alive?" Naruto nodded his head. "Well, obviously there are exceptions. You, me, Namikaze-Taicho, Uchiha, and so on with people from your world. I just feel like, you, me and those people are more human then anyone else."

"We're not human though." Naruto stated with a clear voice. "We're Shinigami, Death Gods, and Soul Reapers; to humans we're the Grim Reaper. We're dead. Humans are living."

"Exactly." Ichigo hummed as the two walked along the path the cool breeze of the morning blowing through the maze like halls leading to the main quarters of the Sixth Division. "We remember being human though."

"Ah." Naruto understood now. Ichigo attached to Naruto because the Namikaze remembered being human much like Ichigo did. Being from different worlds did not make a difference and that is how the two of them connected despite the differences in their lives. It was in their deaths that they connected and how they would stay connected.

--

Sasuke had been sitting at Squad Three headquarters for a good hour now. Through the years he had grown accustom to being the first in authority there, then slowly on more people would show up the last being Minato. When Sasuke first realized his captain was always kind of late he compared the blonde Taicho to Kakashi and later on as Minato began to make simple mistakes or point out obvious things the Uchiha changed his label to Naruto. Sasuke had no idea how accurate it would be to think of his captain as Naruto until he once again met his rival, best friend, and first love once again.

"Maybe it would be better to call Naruto, Namikaze-Taicho." Sasuke muttered before he shook his head and looked to the door as the Vice-Captain Kira Izuru walked in. "Good morning Kira Fukutaicho!" Sasuke said with a quick bow before the vice-captain told Sasuke he could be at ease.

"Is…" Izuru started raising his hand to point at the door he had just come through but stopped half way. "Never mind, I know the answer to that question already. Let me know when Namikaze-Taicho comes in, alright?"

"Yes sir!" Sasuke's voice rose before Izuru nodded his head and went to attend to other duties. Sasuke loosed up his stance after Izuru was out of sight. The Uchiha was perfectly fine acting normal around Minato but with other superior people, save for maybe Ichigo and Toushiro, he would get tense.

For Sasuke his new life that started in Soul Society was at first a miracle and now a gift that descended from the highest plane of heaven. He had his family, he had Naruto close to hime again, he was in a slight position of power, and he had the power to protect Naruto.

'_A sixth seat doing better then a third in a fight isn't exactly good for Naruto though.' _Sasuke thought to himself as he sat on the couch in the main lobby. '_No one's called him on it though.' _

"Good morning Sasuke-kun." Minato's voice rang from the front doors. "I trust you're ready for another routine day?"

"Of course, Kira-Fukutaicho already told me he wanted to talk to you. I bet it's about your filing again." Sasuke mused with a smirk playing at his lips.

"It can't be that bad already." Minato defended before he opened the door to his office which was covered in papers. Some of the sheets were written on, a few had doodles, and many others were unsigned important documents. A long pause followed before Minato slowly closed the door. "I see. Well…Ahem…"

"I'm not doing it for you even if you court-martial me for insubordination." Sasuke said quickly folding his arms. He dealt with Minato in a similar why that he would deal with the captain's son. "You won't learn anything if you don't do it yourself."

"You're so mean Sasuke-kun, and I was thinking about teaching you something interesting that I found." Minato whined as he hung his head. "I'm sure that you would love it too."

"I don't care." Sasuke said flat out causing the blonde captain to groan in frustration.

--

"Your tea Kuchiki-Taicho." Megumi smiled placing a tray on the desk where Kuchiki Byakuya had just finished signing papers.

"Thank you." Byakuya nodded toward Megumi before she left with a slender bow then took her leave quietly shutting the door behind her. '_Three years…I'm already feeling tired.' _Byakuya said to himself as he sipped his tea. '_Kurosaki…Ichigo…' _

Byakuya's thoughts had been littered from time to time with Ichigo. He believed strongly that he had made the right decision when it came to the care of Ichigo. Byakuya had never found the orange haired teen to be much of a threat since his death coming to Seireitei. If anything, the ebony haired captain had grown found of Ichigo though he would never admit it.

A knock came from the door before Naruto's voice came from the other side of the entrance. "Taicho, some papers came in that you need to sign."

"Enter."

"You know typical Ichigo, he makes me do the work." Naruto laughed as he rolled his eyes. "Lazy jerk's sleeping in the lounge."

"That is indeed like him." Byakuya suppressed laughter. He was glad that Ichigo was acting like himself. No matter how annoying the typical actions of Ichigo were to Byakuya he was happy that the Kurosaki was acting normal. "These are about what now?"

"Tired of reading already? It's only eleven." Naruto chuckled before he turned the pages and skimmed them. "Well this one is about member transfers. Looks like Takatai and Yurukume want to transfer out to Squads Eleven and four respectively."

"Hand it here." Byakuya motioned for the paper and he inked a quill and signed an approval. "Next."

"Some one wants to start…casual weekends?" Naruto raised an eye brow to this.

"Toss it."

"Alright, next is, well, more like a question, it wants to know what to do with an Abarai Renji…who's that?" Naruto questioned looking at his captain with lost eyes.

"Former Fukutaicho to Squad Six. He was sent on a special Earth mission three and a half years ago with Kuchiki Rukia." Byakuya explained taking the paper before he started to write on it. "He's capable of Bankai…hmm…I think that a captain's position on the Ninth Squad would suffice."

"Will he be happy?" Naruto wondered out loud.

"Possibly, not that I care if he's happy or not."

"Rukia…is she related?"

"The same why that you and Itachi are related, why do you want to know?" Byakuya questioned glancing up from the paper.

"Well, you said Kuchiki so I assumed, it was just a question." Naruto defended with a shrug.

"It's none of your concern."

"Same old Taicho, okay! Last one…it's sealed. I don't think I should read this." Naruto said as he showed his captain the envelope. Byakuya took the packet with a weak nod. "Well, I'm going to go and wake Ichigo up. I think some training is in order."

"You know you're going to cause a verbal fight." Byakuya muttered as he started to write about Renji.

"I apologize in advance." Naruto laughed before he left quietly closing the door behind him.

For a moment Byakuya looked up at the now closed door with a gentle smile on his lips. After the moment past he put on his same stern expression and continued to write.

--

"Matsumoto! Get up!" Hitsugaya shouted at the large busted woman sleeping on the couch in his office. "If you want to sit around at least fill out paper work while you're at it!"

"But paperwork just makes me sleepier!" she yawned acting much like what her Zanpakutou would act; like a cat.

"Stop being ridiculous and help me out for once!"

"I do help out. I keep the couch warm for you." Rangiku yawned before turning her back to her captain and going back to sleep.

"Fine." Hitsugaya muttered striding over to his desk. Toushiro had always taken care of the paper work. He was not expecting Rangiku to get up but he always tried. It was something that always happened. Change was something that not many people could handle in Seireitei. If something began to alter, depending on the change, a small or huge panic would start before things would adjust to the situation and then days would go on without much difference from the day before it.

'_Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.' _Hitsugaya thought looking to the ceiling before he turned his seat to look out of the window. '_Reflexes can be changed though.' _Toushiro thought before turning back to his paper filled desk. He slowly picked up a kanji filled paper and began to read over it slowly. His sea green eyes glanced to the paper under his arm spotting the name Uzuki on the top. "This is from _him_." Toushiro said picking up the paper and looking at Sai's name.

"He wants to quit night shifts." Hitsugaya rolled his eyes as he looked at request paper. A particular section of the paper caught his interest though.

In the additional comments section:

"_**I understand why I was placed on night duty, but I have recently spoken to Naruto and all ill emotions or confusion have been cleared up. This is, of course, a request and you can deny this. I would just like to go back to a schedule of working that I am accustomed to."**_

"You talked to Naruto have you?" Toushiro asked no one. For a moment he wanted to just discard it but after some thought he realized that the whole reason he did put Sai on night shifts was so that Naruto would not have to see Sai. '_I really am selfish.' _Toushiro said limply holding the paper as he placed his left hand over his eye.

"I'll give it to you." The captain said signing the paper giving consent to another schedule change.

"Taicho are you talking to yourself?" Matsumoto asked as she sat up with a yawn.

"No, but if you're up why don't you help with the papers?" Hitsugaya asked annoyed.

--

**(Naruto PoV)**

"_**The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity." **_Ichigo said as we sat back to back in the training dojo trying to recover our breath. We had been sword fighting for over two hours now and we were exhausted.

"Huh?" I breathed as I looked at the back of his head.

"I read that in one of the books at Byakuya's house. I thought it sounded cool so I memorized it." Ichigo said with a thoughtful voice. "Wanna hear what I think it means?" I gave him the go ahead so he cleared his throat before he spoke again. "We can be afraid of dying but even though we fear it, it will be remembered as the day that we lived the most. Even if we really didn't do anything the day we pass will be remembered just as much as our birthdays and celebrated the same way."

"Ah," I sounded as I thought about the quote as my friend spoke. "Have you had a death day before Ichigo?" He made a confused sound so I explained. "Well, I thought about it before so I'll tell you. Don't laugh at it though." He agreed to my condition of sharing and then I continued. "If we have days that we were born celebrated, birthdays, shouldn't we also have the day we died celebrated?"

"I don't know about that." Ichigo muttered before he stood up. "Remember, when most people come here they forget about when they were living. It's hard to celebrate either a birthday or a death day if you don't remember being alive to die in the first place."

"Good point." I said standing up as well with a thoughtful face. "I guess you're right."

"Now, enough about death and living and that crap! Let's go out on a patrol. If I stay in this place much longer I'm gonna kill-over." Ichigo growled in an agitated tone.

"But didn't Zaraki-Taicho say he was going to be looking for you today?" I reminded him of what the Eleventh Division captain had said two days ago.

"So that's why I didn't feel like going out even earlier…." Ichigo hummed scratching his chin. "Fine, let's just keep sparing. Eventually it'll be the time we can head home."

"Okay." I smiled with a vigorous nod. "Besides, training will be good for us. We never know when Arrancar might show back up!"

"Oh yeah, those guys…" Ichigo hummed before nodding back to me. "You're right! We have to be ready! The fight against the Hollow's will never end if we aren't in shape! Ready, Naruto?"

"Bring it!" I shouted before dashing at him meeting his raised Shinai with my own.

Time passed as if it was a forever motion. Eventually it was time to go home and we started our way along the path again. I said that we needed to be ready for the Hollow but I think I was just saying that so we had a reason to keep going. The whole thing about this life in Seireitei was that there was nothing to really do unless we set a goal. We needed to set goals, or make plans, so that we felt like this life was worth going through every time the sun rose anew.

_**Desire is half of life. **_

--+--+--

_**(The End)**_

_For now, I plan on doing a sequel which will actually have more yaoi and more other stuff as well. I'm going to actually plan it out too. I liked working on this and I don't think I would have wanted to do it any different. At any rate, the next title will be Indifference is Half of Death. I want to hear reviews still so send them in. Maybe some of the things you guys say will help me out on Indifference is Half of Death. Also, take a quick look at the poll I have on my page right now, I want to know who you guys think that Naruto should be with. I know in my reviews a lot of people have said with Hitsugaya but there are masses of you who don't review. Therefore the poll will help me out. I won't let anyone know who's in the lead and by the time the next fic is up I'll probably close the poll._

_SO GO TO MY PAGE AND TAKE PART IN THE POLL!!_

_Yoi ichinichi o. _

_Kaiku Akari_


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